SUPREME COURT Trial of man on arson charge begins

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32635, 17 June 1971, Page 13

SUPREME COURT Trial of man on arson charge begins

The trial of John Bede Lagan, a company manager, on a charge of wilfully setting fire to a house, owned by himself and Desmond Francis Lagan, at 3 Hills Road on August 29, 1970, began in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon before Mr Justice Wilson and a jury. Lagan, represented by Messrs B. McClelland and W. H. McMenamin, pleaded not guilty.

Messrs G. S. Penlington and G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the Crown. The Crown’s case was that on the night of Saturday, August 29, the accused deliberately started a fire in two places in the house with an accelerant, said Mr Penlington. The Crown submitted

that the accused was dissatisfied with the price paid for the property by the Christchurch City Council, which required it for road realignment, and that he had been thwarted by county council regulations in his plan to move the house to Waikuku for use as a bach. Contract with council

Morris Walter Atkinson, property administration officer of the Christchurch City Council, said that the council contracted to buy the property from the accused and his brother for $5600. The house was to be removed from the property at no expense to the council.

On July 9 the council gave notice under the contract that the property was required in three months from

that date so that the road works, equid be started- The accused agreed to remove the house within that time. To Mr- McClelland the Witness said that the house was subsequently demolished. The council required the property for road realignment because of the build-up of traffic at the comer of Avalon Street and Hills Road at peak periods. Power disconnected

Henry Ronald Fisse, an electrician employed by the M.E.D., said that he disconnected the power supply to the house on August 13,1970. Desmond Francis Lagan, a company director, of Auckland, and a brother of the accused, said that he and the accused were joint owners of the property. They had in-

herited it from an aunt. Miss Lillian Coffey,, and had owned 1 it for about two or three' years. The witness said he i left the management of the < property to the accused, with whom he had telephone con-1 versations -from time to time, t The accused told him on ( the telephone that the house 1 had been broken into two or i three times, that there had] been a fire, and that there was i a mess to clean up. The ac- < cused did not say how the 1 fire had started. 1 To Mr McClelland the < Witness said that the house was not lavishly furnished. He and the accused had taken the best of the furniture. Neither he nor the accused had ever lived in the house, which had been in the family for about 40 years. Garage manager’s evidence Anthony Maurice Butler, manager of Stan Wheatleys Garage, said that on August 29 he closed the garage at 8.45 p.m. He turned off the outside lights and after locking up sat on a newspaper bok to wait for his wife to pick I him up. i He saw a Holden station < waggon turn round in front i of the garage and park on i the opposite side of the road. The driver went to the rear i of the vehicle and took out a ! four gallon tin and a torch. I The driver, a man walked into i the house at 3 Hills Road. . The witness said that he ’ went into the garage to ans- < wer the telephone and I remained inside. He was < looking out to the road when 1 he saw the man come out with the tin. The man looked i back towards the house and then drove quickly away. i He identified the man as i the accused. He had seen the station waggon parked i outside the house several' times. The witness said there was 1 a slight explosion in the i house and flames flared up.; That happened only seconds : after the station waggon left.;

After the fire brigade and the police arrived the station waggon came back and parked in Avalon Street Only one person was In the vehicle. To Mr McClelland the witness said that on August 29 there were no street light* on the western side of Hills Road. He agreed that normally on a Saturday at 8.45 pjn. at that date the garage would be lit up “like a Christmas tree.” He was sitting in the garage with the lights, which were on inside directly behind him.