MAGISTRATES COURT Bedroom Intruder Attacked Man With Garden Trowel

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 22

MAGISTRATES COURT Bedroom Intruder Attacked Man With Garden Trowel

A factory-worker who early yesterday morning entered the bedroom of a Christchurch man and assaulted him with a garden trowel was remanded in custody to August 12 for sentence when he appeared before Mr E. A. Lee. S.M.. in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Barry Leonard Taylor, aged 25, pleaded guilty and was convicted on a charge of assaulting Robert Wilson Treleaven with intent to facilitate his flight on commission of the offence of burglary. Senior Sergeant G. M. Cleary said that a complaint that someone was being t eaten up was received from a house in Peverel street at 2.38 a.m. on August 6. Treleaven had been found sitting on the defendant in the bedroom of his flat. Treleaven was bleeding profusely and was taken to hospital with lacerations to the face. He said that he had been in bed with his wife when he had heard suspicious noises and had felt something touch the bed. When he turned on the light he was immediately attacked by the defendant, who struck him several times with a garden trowel. Treleaven’s wife screamed, and a neighbour heard this and called the police. Treleaven managed to overpower the defendant and sat on him until the police arrived, said Senior Sergeant Cleary. Later, it was found that Taylor had climbed through a bathroom window. He claimed that he could not remember anything after climbing into the flat. He could not say where the trowel had come from. Senior Sergeant Cleary said that the defendant’s attitude of pretending to forget was a common one of his. No money or property had been taken. Taylor smelt of liquor but was not drunk. Treleaven’s facial lacerations required seven stitches. “It would appear fortunate that the complainant was able to overpower the defendant as he would have been in danger of serious injuries from the defendant’s assault,” Senior Sergeant Cleary said. ARSON “Is it a current trend, do you think?” asked the Magistrate when a young woman whose name was suppressed appeared before him charged with setting fire to a city institution on July 10. She pleaded guilty, and was convicted and remanded in custody of the Child Welfare Department to August 12. Senior Sergeant G. M. Cleary said that the fire had started in a cupboard. The girl had set fire to nine bathing costumes. Two other girls had looked on. The defendant admitted lighting the fire. She had known that there was a sick girl in the wing and another confined to her room, but said she had forgotten about them. The fire caused about £35 damage to walls and ceiling, and bathing costures valued at £lB were destroyed. DETENTION CENTRE Leslie James Marsh, aged 19, a spray painter, was sentenced to a period in a detention centre when he appeared for sentence on two charges of driving while disqualified. His period of disqualification from driving was extended by a year on each charge. “I am convinced a period of training would do you the

world of good," the Magistrate said. THEFT OF PETROL Gilbert Thomas SprotL aged 28. a truck driver, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft of four gallons of petrol valued at 12s while a servant of Farrier Waimak, Ltd. 1 He was fined £l2. I Senior Sergeant Cleary said [the firm had been losing a ! great deal of petrol and had (added a dve to the fuel to try I to catch the offenders. ! Defendant had been found lin possession of some of the dyed petrol. I A request for suppression i of name was refused. OBSCENE LANGUAGE Donald Ivan McKenzie, aged 17, a carpenter’s labourer (Mr M. J. Glue) pleaded guilty to a charge of using obscene language in Cathedral square on June 25. he was fined £lO. THEFT Pleading guilty to three charges arising out of the theft of a Post Office Savings Bank book, Lester Cyril Needham, aged 34, a storeman. was convicted and remanded in custody to August 12 for sentence. Needham pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing a Post Office Savings Bank book valued at Is. a charge that knowing a withdrawal form to be forged he caused a person to act on it as if it were genuine. and a charge of forging a Post Office Savings Bank withdrawal form.

Senior Sergeant Cleary said that between March 6 and 10 a man in Invercargill reported the theft of his Post Office Savings Bank book. He was told a withdrawal of £5 had been made in Christchurch. Defendant had later admitted taking the book and making the withdrawal. He had used the money to pay his fare back to Invercargill. The Magistrate refused Needham's application for bail. FAILED TO STOP On a charge of failing to stop at the signal of a constable in Cathedral square on June 25, Kenneth Leslie Ampman. aged 19, a labourer, was convicted and fined £lO. He pleaded guilty. Ampman said he had not seen the constable when he first drove round the Square; but had stopped the second time. DISQUALIFIED DRIVING Mervyn John Walker, aged 18, a labourer (Mr M. J. Glue) pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while disqualified on May 25 and a charge of dangerous driving on May 25. He was convicted and remanded for sentence to August 12. After an accident Walker had left the scene without giving his name, the Court was told. Later he was identified and it was found he had been disqualified from driving. STOLE CYCLE Anthony Robert Joyce, aged 23, a workman, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing a cycle valued at £l2 on January 28. He was convicted and remanded on bail to August 12 for sentence.

Senior Sergeant Cleary said the cycle had been stolen from outside the Post Office last December. On Thursday information had been received from a city cycle dealer and defendant had later been interviewed. Joyce had said he had found the cycle abandoned in Papanut in January, and after a few weeks had started to use it. He finally decided to sell it. ONE CHARGE DISMISSED Charged with failing to ascertain whether a person was injured in an accident on May 3 at the intersection of Colombo street and Southe. street, Clarence John Cumberpatch, aged 59, a clerk (Mr A. Hearn), pleaded not guilty. The charge was dismissed. On a charge of failing to give way when turning to which he also pleaded not guilty, he was fined £4. Evidence was given that a motor-cyclist attempting to avoid Cumberpatch's car had come into collision with a nower-cycle. Cumberpatch had stopped his car along the road, got out and looked at the two riders picking themselves up, then driven off. The motor-cyclist was avoiding the car after it failed to give way to him. The motorcycle was nearly level with the power-cycle when the car turned right in front of it. Cumberpatch said he had walked back to the accident and spoken with the motorcyclist. The Magistrate said he thought the defendant had failed in his duty to see the motor-cycle, but he was satisfied he did not know that his vehicle was involved. FOUND DRUNK Joseph James McFarland, aged 39, a cattle salesman, was fined £2, in default three days' imprisonment, on a charge of being found drunk in a public place on August 5. having been once previously convicted of a similar offence within six months. He did not appear. REMANDED Gordon Frederick Davey, aged 17, was remanded on bail to August 12 on a charge of attempting to break and enter premises at 290 Main North road on August 6. Noel Trevor Cunningham, aged 33. was remanded on bail to August 12 on a charge of assault on August 6. He pleaded not guilty. TRAFFIC CHARGES On traffic charges brought by the police offenders were dealt with as follows, with costs of £t 10s in each case:— Careless driving: Edward Alan White, £7 10s; Jack Orlando Thompson, £3 tfailed to supply name and address after accident, £1); Desmond William Ashby, £lO and disqualified for three months and ordered to attend a course of lectures: David Alan Owen-Cooper, £lO and disqualified for three months. I Failed to give way: Brenda Cecilia Brankin, £10: Brian Dudley Simpson, £8: David Roy Bennett, £10: Richard Everard j Barker, £5.

Failed to give way when turning: John Henry Smith. £lO, Frederick Samuel Floyd. £4: Clement Edward George Stewart. £lO. Failed to produce driver's licence: Trevor Ernest Bartlett. £l. (Before Mr H. J. Evans. S M.) CARELESS USE CAUSING INJURY Charged with careless use of a motor-vehicle so as to cause bodily injury to Bruce Alexander Patterson on April 8, David Alexander Wilson, aged 20. a machine operator (Mr G. T iMahon), pleaded not guilty. He was convicted and fined £23. and his licence was cancelled | for one year. He was also ordered to pay witness's expenses £2. Patterson saitj that on the evening of April 8 he was a passenger in a car driven by Wilson. Two girls were also in the car. They had driven to Lyttelton, and then to Evans pass, where they turned off to the Godlcy Head road. They parked for a while, and then Wilson started to turn the car round The car was being reversed towards the edge of the road when there was a bump and the car started to slide. Patterson said the car bad gone over the edge, and he could not remember anything after that. Patterson said that as a result of the accident he suffered a broken spine, a collapsed lung, and had one leg amputated. Constable W. A. Cromle said that he attended the scene of the accident on the night ot April S. He found the car wrecked, lying across Evans Pass road, practically blocking Patterson was trapped in the car. but the other three occupants had been thrown out of the car as it rolled down the hill. In defence, Wilson said that when he was reversing, he had the door open, and was looking out. He had a reversing light on. He reversed until he felt the rear wheels hit a small gravel mound at the edge of the road. He then stopped the car and was putting it into first gear, with the brakes applied, when the car began to roll backwards and went over the edge. Wilson told the Magistrate that the only reason he could give for the accident was the ank giving way. but he did not know if this was what had happened. LAST CHANCE "You are a man who Is still capable of making good, but this is your last chance of doing so," said the Magistrate when be sentenced Graeme Herbert Milton Claridge, aged 23. a welder (Mr R. G. Blunt), on two driving charges and a charge ot theft. Claridge, who was appearing for sentence, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, to be served concurrently with a period previously Imposed in the Supreme Court, and was disqualified from driving for a further year, on a charge of driving while disqualified on April 17. On a charge of driving , at a speed which might have j been dangerous on April 17, he was fined £2O, and his licence was cancelled for a fur-' liter year. On a charge of theft of a driver's licence on Decern her 20, 1963. he was ordered to I pav costs. the Magistrate said Claridge | was now disqualified until Feb- j ruary, 1969

CHARGE DISMISSED A charge against Arthur Alfred Wilson, aged 61, a driver (Mr M. F. Hobbs), of careless use of a motor-vehicle on Ferry road on May 7, was dismissed. Wilson pleaded not guilty. (Before Mr K. 11. J. Headifen, S.M.) DISMISSED A charge of using a motorvehicle carelessly on Port Hills road on June 7. against Phillip Ambrose Diggs, aged 57 a warehouseman (Mr J. N. Matson), was dismissed. He pleaded not BUllty ' DETENTION Appearing for sentence on one charge of burglary at Westport, two of false pretences at Westport and Cronadun. and one of atempted false pretences at Reefton, George Norman Reeve, aged 17. a forestry worker, was sentenced to a detention centre. All the offences were committed on July 26. DROVE WHILE DISQUALIFIED Appearing for sentence on a charge of driving while disqualified on July 30, Roy Robert Gourley, aged 18, a workman, was sentenced to a detention centre.