Injured Youth Found In Room

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31669, 3 May 1968, Page 12

Injured Youth Found In Room

A resident of Whiteleigh Avenue found a badly-battered youth lying semi-conscious on a bed with a bloodstained pillow in her home about 8.10 ajn. yesterday.

The police do not know how the youth suffered his injuries or how he got into the room.

He may have wandered through an unlocked door of the house and slumped into the bed.

The youth, Bevan John Garreth White, aged 16, of 138 Riccarton Road, has been admitted to Christchurch Hospital with a badly lacerated ear, bruising to the face and a possible fracture of the skull. His condition was reported to be fairly satisfactory last evening. Mrs I. Doak, of 1 Whiteleigh Avenue, found the youth. Detective Superintendent F. A. Gordon, head of the Criminal Investigation Branch, said yesterday that the injuries suggested the youth had been beaten up. The youth had been unable to recollect how he came to be In the house. The police are considering

the possibility that he was waylaid, assaulted, and left near the Show Grounds.

Detective Sergeant M. Jones, the officer in charge of the investigation, said last evening that the injured youth was thought to have attended the boat show yesterday afternoon and possibly also attended the Rugby League match at the Show Grounds.

A jersey, which was known to have been in his possession earlier in the day and which had'been missing, was found in the Show Grounds grandstand.

Mr Doak said last evening that he had heard no sound during the night. He said that his daughter, who had been preparing to leave for a holiday, had clothing round her room and over the beds, so she had slept in another room.

When they found the youth he was sleeping, partly clothed, between the blankets. His outer clothing was found in the washhouse.

Mr Doak said the youth might have wandered through the unlocked washhouse door into the house. His daughter had heard a noise in the night but had thought it was another member of the household. She did not know the time. The youth had shifted from the pillow the clothes she had left there but had not moved other clothes from the bed.

Mr Doak last evening visited the youth in hospital but the youth told him he could remember nothing but being at the Addington Show Grounds as darkness fell.