SUPREME COURT Man Guilty On Charges Of Unlawful Entry

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 10

SUPREME COURT Man Guilty On Charges Of Unlawful Entry

A man standing trial in the Supreme Court yesterday, charged with unlawfully entering two houses last January with intent to commit theft, was identified by witnesses as having been seen descending a ladder placed below an upstairs window of one house, and coming out the back door of the other. The accused, Anzac Robert Williams, a 23-year-old bottle collector, when questioned by the police, had taken the attitude: “If you think I did it, you prove it,” said the Crown Prosecutor (Mr C. M. Roper) in introducing the case against him. Williams, defended by Mr D. H. P. Dawson, pleaded not guilty. It was submitted to the jury on his behalf, that even if it held Williams had entered the buildings—of which there was doubt—there was no proof at all of his intention to commit crime.

The jury, however, found Williams guilty on both charges, after a retirement of 15 minutes. Mr Justice MacArthur remanded Williams, in custody, for sentence on Friday. Money and Goods Stolen Evidence was given that £3O had been stolen on January

27, from an upstairs flat in the first house Williams was alleged to have entered—a Worcester street apartment building—and a transistor radio, a watch, and £5 stolen from the second house, at Bromley. Maureen Bailey, owner of the Worcester street premises, gave evidence of calling there about 11 a.m. on January 27 to see Williams, a tenant of a flat there, about £22 arrears of rent She encountered Williams, she said, descending a ladder placed just below the window of the flat subsequently found to have been entered. Williams had said he was “cleaning his windows,” witness said—but to Mr Roper said Williams had had no window-cleaning materials, nor was it necessary to use a ladder to clean the windows of his downstairs flat. After having “words” with Williams about his rent, said witness, he had paid her, somewhat reluctantly, the £22 owed.

Mrs Bailey went on to describe how her own house, at Cuthberts road, Bromley, had been entered three days later, on January 30, and articles and money stolen. Her next-door neighbour, Gladys Aily Foulds, said that that morning, while hanging out her washing, she had seen Williams, of whose indentification she was positive, come out of Mrs Bailey’s back door, and with another man waiting there walk away. Cross-Examination Under cross-examination, witness said she could not say that Williams had been carrying anything. Trevor David Smith, a plumber, said he had gone to the Cuthberts road house with Williams on January 30, to inquire from Mrs Bailey about flats to let—and Faye Lynette King, schoolgirl, also

gave evidence that she had seen Williams go into Mrs Bailey’s place. Detective-Constable J. P. Bermingham, under crossexamination by Mr Dawson, conceded that none of the missing goods had been found in Williams's possession—nor any of his fingerprints in the two premises concerned.

Mr Dawson, in his defence address, reminded the jury, that not one of three witnesses had seen Williams carrying anything away from the Cuthberts road property, and there was therefore no proof of his intent to steal there.