Salvaged Only Wheels, Tank

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30793, 3 July 1965, Page 3

Salvaged Only Wheels, Tank

(N.z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, July 2. A sales representative told the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland today all he could salvage from a car taken from outside his home, and later involved in an explosion, were the four wheels and the petrol tank. Leon Shadrack Woodds was giving evidence in a case in which a man and girl are alleged to have stolen a £6OO car and destroyed it with explosives. Jonassen Sadaraka, aged 23, a carpenter, and Lois Anne de Grut, aged 19, a factory hand, have elected trial by jury on a joint charge of wilfully damaging the car.

Woodds said the Humber 80 car involved in the explosion was stolen at 3.40 a.m.

o n May 14. The ignition keys

had been left in the car. Goods in the car to the value of £250, including company records, had not been recovered. He identified a briefcase, sun-glasses, keys, and a cheque book butt shown to him by the police. They had been in the car when it was stolen. Bevan James McKinley, a shoe repairer, said he knew Sadaraka and on May 20 he sold him a pair of shoes for which he was given a cheque for £l5. He later met Sadaraka and drove to the accused’s home in a car he thought was a Hillman. Harold Clive Neal, an explosives inspector, said that, in his opinion, the car had been damaged by a solid explosive rather than a gas-air combination. A single blast had originated somewhere near the rear of the front seat near the transmission tunnel. The extent of the blast would

have taken between two and four pounds of explosives. Lilian Prime ,a telegraph worker, said Sadaraka and de Grut attended a party at her flat on May 16. Late in the evening the guests decided to go to the Picasso coffee lounge and two taxis were ordered. She said the taxis were’ filled and she accepted a ride

from Sadaraka, who had a green and white Humber 80 car that night. He said it was a friend’s vehicle. On the night of the party, Prime said she found a “strange object” underneath her flat. She thought it was a chainsaw. The hearing was adjourned until next Thursday. The ' police are calling 18 witnesses.