Two Youths For Trial On Robbery Charge

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32320, 11 June 1970, Page 6

Two Youths For Trial On Robbery Charge

Two youths charged with the joint robbery of Mr Cyril Vincent Walter, aged 57, in Oxford Terrace on April 23, were committed to the Supreme Court for trial after depositions had been taken in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court yesterday. before Messrs F. Zimmerman and O. C. Mitchell, Justices of the Peace.

The youths. lan Jumbo Hicks, aged 21, an unemployed dustman (Mr C. A. McVeigh), and Eru Hall, aged 18, an unemployed mill hand (Mr K. N. Hampton), pleaded . not guilty to the joint charge of robbing Mr Walter of $9 cash and one wristlet watch valued at $22. They were remanded in custody until J the Supreme Court trial after jthe prosecutor, Sergeant W jw. Maloney, had said that j there was “no question of I bail" because both defendants were currently serving prison j sentences on other matters. J Mr Walter said that he left jthe shop where he worked in [New Regent Street at 10 p.m. jtfti Thursday, April 23. I “As I was walking along the footpath on the west side lof Madras Street by the Clock Tower I became aware of two people who appeared to be 1 in the plot of grass there.”

Struck On Head He had left his car parked in the all-day parking area past the Fire Brigade Station in Oxford Terrace, said Mr Walter. “On the footpath near the church 1 became more aware that the two figures were following me. I glanced back and spoke to them. I said something like ‘Hullo you blokes, it’s a warm night tonight.’ It was a norwest night. The nearer was about three or four feet away. Almost immediately after, I was struck on the right side of the head.”

Mr Walter said that he was not unconscious, but so severely concussed that there was no feeling of pain associated with the blows which followed. He could reniember wending his way back toward the city to seek assistance.

Henri Moen, who lives at 290 Oxford Terrace, said that about 10.20 p.m. on the night of the incident he was in bed reading when he heard a scuffle outside. On hearing a second scuffle, he looked through the window and saw ;two men, one standing up on ; the drive, the other bent over, jHe grabbed a .22 rifle and ! went outside. He found a man lying on the driveway about i eight or nine feet from the entrance, so returned and telephoned for the police. The man standing had a Beatle-cut hairstyle, with hair down to his shoulders. Dr J. G. Gilbert said that when' he examined Mr Walter at the Christchurch Public Hospital he found bruises on both sides of his scalp, with a laceration over the right bruise, a bruise below the right eye and the left angle of the jaw, a bruise on the (left thigh, and a small laceration on the chin. Girl’s Evidence

A 14-year-old girl, whose name was suppressed, said that she met the defendants in the Square on April 24 and

they told her that they had beaten up an old man and were going to “shoot through." The three of them caught the train to Invercargill, she said.

Detective J. Gorman said , that he interviewed Hicks at Invercargill on May 6. In an unsigned statement, Hicks said that he and a friend had been to the Star and Garter i Hotel on the night of the incident. He was “pretty full.” They had left the hotel about 10.15 p.m. and walked down by the river toward the fire station. “There was this old i joker. My mate asked this i joker which way to Foresters ... he pointed toward the Star and Garter. It doesn’t ; matter. My mate hit him first. '1 hit him because my mate hit him. I don’t know, it was just a reflex. I took his watch off him, and the money too. We left him in a driveway (somewhere.”

! Detective Sergeant A. G. 1. Rogers said that he interviewed Hall at Invercargill on I May 6. Hall said that he would tell him nothing, and that he did not know any (“old joker,” but when shown ! Hicks’s statement, complained (that Hicks had “sold him(self," said Detective Sergeant (Rogers. Hall said that if the | "old joker” had gone down (he would have been good, but that he had kept yelling and [they had had to hit him to shut him up, said Detective Sergeant Rogers.