Supreme Court Acquitted On Charge Of Breaking And Entering

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30686, 27 February 1965, Page 22

Supreme Court Acquitted On Charge Of Breaking And Entering

A jury in the Supreme Court yesterday took only minutes to return with a verdict of not guilty after having been warned by Mr Justice Macarthur that it was dangerous to convict a man charged with burglary if the only essential evidence of identification was that of a tracker dog. William Douglas Isherwood, aged 19, a labourer (Mr G. R. Lascelles), had earlier pleaded not guilty to a charge that on January 3 he broke and entered the premises of Reginald John Douglas Marshall at 1025 Colombo street.

Mr C. M. Roper appeared for the Crown. Maria Bernice Laurie said that about 11 p.m. she had heard a banging and went outside, where she saw a man in dark clothes standing in the yard of Marshall’s store across the street. She rang the police, and saw a man cross from the vicinity of the store to her side of the street. He was not the man who had been in the yard. Sergeant G. G. Cleland said that after receiving a call he stopped Isherwood further north along Colombo street. Constable A. F. Leslie said

that he took the police dog Maro to the shop. After casting about near the rear door, which was open, the dog tracked out on to Cannon street and along it to the intersection of Colombo street. The dog moved along Colombo street, still tracking, crossed the street, and stopped at Isherwood, who was standing with a detective. The track the dog followed was a fresh scent, and Isherwood agreed it had followed his approximate course.

After the close of the Crown case, in which five witnesses were called, Mr Lascelles made an unsuccessful application for Isherwood’s discharge, submitting that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a verdict of guilty. Roy Hood, a bus driver, giving evidence for the defence, said he dropped Isherwood off at the corner of Colombo street and Tuam street about 10.45 p.m. that day. Sidney George Isherwood, the accused’s father, and a breeder and trainer of dogs, said that when tracking from a single footprint a dog would need from 20ft to 60ft to fix on a particular scent. The scent the dog was tracking could have been an airborne scent which had fallen to the ground. There was a north-easterly wind that night which blew from where the accused stood toward Marshall’s store. Mr Lascelles, In his address to the jury, said there was not sufficient time for the accused to have walked from Tuam street to Cannon street along Colombo street and broken into the shop as the Crown alleged. Mrs Laurie had said that the persons she saw were different, and it was not disputed that the second person she saw was Isherwood walking home. Th crux of the case was the police dog Maro, which was not infallible.

Gaol For Theft Gerald Vincent Hood, aged 31, an engineer, whom a jury last week found guilty of stealing a wrist watch, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by Mr Justice Macarthur in the Supreme Court yesterday. Mr I. C. J. Polson appeared for the Crown, and Mr D. J. Hewitt for Hood. His Honour also imposed a term of 12 months’ probation to follow the prison sentence, with a special condition that Hood take out and maintain a prohibition order.