Magistrate Halts Charges

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31367, 12 May 1967, Page 3

Magistrate Halts Charges

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 11.

Twenty-seven students who pleaded not guilty today to being found unlawfully on May 2 on the former conveniences in Wellington, know’n as the “Taj Mahal,” spent little more than half an hour in court before being discharged under section 42 of the Criminal Justice act.

Mr R. M. Grant, S.M., made this decision minutes after the prosecution began its case.

After receiving the assurance of counsel for the students, Mr M. A. Bungay, that damage amounting to £l3 to the building’s roof would be paid to the Wellington City Corporation, the Magistrate said he would apply section 42.

Proceedings began about 9.40 a.m. before a courtroom full of student onlookers.

The police prosecutor, Sergeant A. H. Colegrave, asked that the students be charged separately. One by one the students filed into the courtroom and had the charge read to them.

31 CHARGED Thirty-one students appeared. Twenty-seven pleaded not guilty to being found pn a building in Kent terrace without lawful excuse, but in circumstances that did not disclose the commission of or intention to commit any other offence. The remaining four were charged with other offences relating to the same incident and were remanded on bail to May 26 on the application of Mr Bungay. Those charged with being found unlawfully on the building are: Barbara Ann John, aged 19, Rhoda /elicity Hursthouse Miller, 18, Lorna Elizabeth Glubb, 18, Heather Joan Benson, 20, Jennifer Lee Compton, 17, Pat Martin, 19, Phillippa Davys, 19, Judy Elena Sullivan, 18, Margaret Theresa Harris, 18, Anna Holdaway, 18, Pamela Mary Alayne Kershaw, 17, Peter Gilbert Horsley, 19, Geoffrey David Rashbrooke, 21, Frank William Nielson Wright, 23, Clifford Gordon Laking, 20. Nigel William Shields, 18, Peter Offenberger, 20, Frank David John Smith 19, Malcolm Douglas McSporran, 18, John Sebastian Hales, 20, John Andrew Muir, 19, Graham James Collins, 21, Rodney James Paterson, 19, Johannes Jacobus de Ruiter, 19, Geoffrey Ronald Beatson, 18, Anthony Norman Small, 19, Peter Rayner Kellaway, 19. Alan Monte Craven, aged 18, pleaded not guilty to assaulting a constable in the execution of his duty, Paul Brian Johnston, aged 17, and

James Stephen Jamieson, aged 20, pleaded not guilty to obstructing a footpath without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, and Peter Lawrence Hendra, aged 19, was remanded without plea on a charge of unlawfully interfering with a police car. Mr Bungay appeared for all the students except Kershaw, who was represented by Mr B. Kerr. OWN LADDERS Harold Truman, an overseer in the cleansing branch of the Wellington City Corporation said that about 4.20 p.m. he saw a number of people on the roof of the building,

commonly known as the “Taj Mahal.”

“They had placards and all sorts of things and had their own ladders with them. There were at least 50 to 60 people on the roof,” he said.

Truman said he had the police called when the students failed to comply with his request. He said he was concerned that about half the roof was constructed of glass panes. “Was there any damage?” said the Magistrate.

The witness said that about seven panes, worth a total of £l3, were broken. The Magistrate asked the

witness if the damage to the glass panes was the main cause of worry. The witness replied that it was. “Mr Bungay, will you undertake to have this sum paid?” asked the Magistrate. Mr Bungay: Yes. “Then I propose, here and now, to discharge all the defendants in terms of section 42,” said the Magistrate. HEARING CLOSED After their arrest on May 2 the students spent about six hours in the cells at the Central Police Station, the “Evening Post” reported. Their fingerprints and photographs were taken, and they were charged in a small room before Mr L. Salek, J.P. The hearing, which the police said was not open to the public nor the newspapers, started at 11.15 p.m., two hours later than originally stated by the police.

Although the Central Police Station was “fully geared” into operation, according to one police officer, it took police longer than anticipated to complete fingerprinting and photographing. At 11.15 p.m. the 11 girls in the group were taken from the cells, hurried across the courtyard and lined up in a corridor of the station.

The girls were led into the small room one by one, charged, remanded, and then led to another room to be bailed.

Only one or two parents were at the police station, and several students who waited outside more than an hour had left by the time those arrested were released. When all the girls had been bailed they waited in a group outside the station. When told by police to go home, several of them replied that they had no transport, and no money. Eventually they were taken home by police. The male students were dealt with in a similar way, and the last was released just after midnight