Supreme Court MEN FOUND GUILTY OF BURGLARY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31366, 11 May 1967, Page 16

Supreme Court MEN FOUND GUILTY OF BURGLARY

A “drama in two acts” was the Crown's description in the Supreme Court yesterday of a case in which Stanley Patrick Wehipeihana, aged 31, a gardener (Mr I. C. J. Polson), and Paka John Poata, aged 22, a workman (Mr R. J. Allan), pleaded not guilty to a joint charge of burglary of the Royal Hotel on February 18.

The first act, said the Crown Prosecutor (Mr C. M. Roper) consisted of the flight of two Maori men disturbed in the hotel office and bottle store about 2 a.m. that day. One man jumped a fence into Archibald’s Garage next door, and the other ran down Antigua street pursued by a constable. This chase resulted in a capture. While this was going on, the hotel licensee, Robert Clarence Cotton, still in pyjamas, encountered a man—identified as Wehipeihana—who came out from between the hotel and garage, and told him: “Two Maori boys just ran up the street chased by a policeman.”

Cotton said: “Yes, and you’d be one of them.”

Cotton himself gave evidence that after holding Wehipeihana—who said he had just : finished work at the Christchurch Hospital, where a check could be made—he decided to let him go. The second act, said Mr Roper, took place in Fendalton road at 3.40 a.m. Constable A. de Kort, who had captured Poata, and was now again on nolice-car patrol, saw a car, the driver of which seemed familiar, and stopped it. The driver was Weihipeihana, whom Constable de Kort recognised as one of the two who had run from the Royal Hotel. “Asked to account for his movements, Wehipeihana said that at 11 p.m. he had been in the Sandridge Hotel, and then gone with an American friend to Christchurch Airport,” said Mr Roper. “He had then gone home, to sleep, then got up and was on his way out to the airport again.” Wehipeihana was taken to the police station, and subsequently picked out by Cotton from an identification parade.

Cotton, under cross-examin-ation by Mr Polson, was challenged about this identification.

“If Wehipeihana says he has never been near your hotel, would you still be quite positive about him?” Mr Polson asked.

Cotton: Quite positive. 1 was right close to him, under

;,the street light. There could > be no mistake. i Constable de Kort, to Mr ; Polson, said he had kept both - men in view as they ran from , the hotel, but they were 20 , to 25 yards ahead. , Wehipeihana gave evidence, t in which he said he was misj takenly identified by Cotton . and Constable de Kort.

Questioned by Mr Roper, Wehipeihana said he had been quite prepared to get up at 3 a.m. and drive to the United States Navy base at Christchurch Airport to pick up an American friend as he came off duty. The jury, after a retirement of one hour, found both Poata and Wehipeihana guilty. Mr Justice Macarthur remanded them, in custody, for sentence on May 17.