Mother Thought Son’s Behaviour ‘Unbalanced’

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30879, 12 October 1965, Page 22

Mother Thought Son’s Behaviour ‘Unbalanced’

(New Zealand Press Association!

AUCKLAND, October 11. The mother of two men charged with the £15,000 Avondale bank robbery on June 10, told the Supreme Court in Auckland today that she thought one of her sons, Daniel Huntwell MacMillan, was not sane.

She said that MacMillan was ve r y strange in his views and in a recent letter had told her he wanted to change his name to Leonatus Trajaa Globeous Aureolus August Philotus Cosmopolitus. MacMillan refused to plead when charged. He said “I make no answer to these charges" and “How boring,” when asked for his pleas. His counsel, Mr R. L. Maclaren, asked for and was given leave to plead not guilty on his behalf. MacMillan, aged 28, unemployed, and David Harley Western, aged 20. a student, are charged with robbing Jeffrey Lynn Julian and Murray James Ness of £15.273 13s 2d, the property of the Bank of New Zealand, and breaking into the bank’s Avondale agency with intent to commit a crime. They are also charged with stealing a driving licence and converting two cars. Western is also charged with helping Macmillan to avoid arrest. Catherine Barbara Western, aged 25, a housewife, faces charges of receiving sums of £948 and £12,283 knowing it to have been stolen, and helping MacMillan and David Western avoid arrest. Both the Westerns pleaded not guilty to all charges.

MacMillan appeared in dock handcuffed to a prison officer. The hearing is expected to last a fortnight, during which 70 Crown witnessess will be called and 150 exhibits, including more than £13,000 in cash, will be produced. The hearing is before Mr Justice Gresson and a jury. Mr D. S. Morris is appearing for the Crown. David Western is represented by Mr D. S. Beattie, Q.C., and Mr R. G. Sutton, and Catherine Western by Mr P. B. Temm. The jury includes two women. MacMillan interjected early during the opening address for the Crown by Mr D. S. Morris. Mr Morris said Catherine Western was MacMillan’s de facto wife before the offence took place. MacMillan interrupted: “You are speaking out of hand. You have no knowledge of whether she was my de facto wife or not.” The judge warned MacMillan that if he interrupted proceedings he would be taken back to his cell and the hearing conducted in his absence. Mr Morris said the Avondale branch of the bank was staffed by Ness and Julian. RECORD OF NOTES Each day they took to the branch a very large sum of money obtained from the head cashier at the main branch and drawn by him from the Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank kept a record

of the sums withdrawn, the numbers of each denomination and the serial numbers of the notes. On June 10 there was £15.273 13s 2d at the branch. When Ness and Julian arrived with their driver, they saw a Morris Oxford, which the Crown alleged the accused men later made off in. parked outside. After the driver left the two tellers were jumped by two men who came out of the toilet. The two tellers would describe how one man wore a white crash helmet and both were masked. The shorter one was carrying a pistol similar to a Luger to be produced in court, and 'he other held what looked like a cutdown rifle. PRINT ON WINDOW Detective Thomas William Lewis said that on June 10 he examined the bank agency. At the rear he found a piece of black plasticine fixed to a damaged window frame. He found a partial fingerprint impression on the inside of this. He later took the fingerprints of the two male accused. The right thumb print of MacMillan was on the plasticine. Alice Blossom Allerton Western, of Milford, said she was the' mother of both the male accused. Mr Morris asked if witness could say whether Catherine Western and MacMillan had been married. Witness: They are married in the eyes of God. Cross-examined by Mr Maclaren. witness said that when MacMillan came back from Fiji his behaviour was not normal, and she considered he was not sane. She considered he was unbalanced and she “was very worried because she had seen it in the other son.” She had another son who had had a I mental breakdown. I It was hard to converse I with him. she said. “He held that society was ; a mass of corruption and evil," she said. “It was hard to get things down to day-to-day terms." “STRANGE VIEWS” Witness said MacMillan could be very strange in his views and as time went on she found it very difficult to hold a conversation with him. “His manner was very strange, and just unbalanced,” she said. “It seemed as though he couldn’t keep up with society and his views were of another world." Accused had had a considerable sum of money from his father over the last few years, she said. Over the last few years MacMillan had led a fairly solitary life. “He was studying all these books about the occult,” she said. He had refused to see a psychiatrist. Names seemed to he a state of fantasy to him. Only last week, in a letter to her. he had told her that he wished to change his name. She read the name—Leonatus Trajax Globeous Aureous August Philotus Cosmopolitus —to the Court. The trial will continue tomorrow.