Leopold director convicted

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32966, 12 July 1972, Page 17

Leopold director convicted

/.V ?. Pre»« A»sn.—Copyright! PERTH, July 11. Brian Howard Cutler, aged 33, a former director of Leopold Minerals, was convicted by a Supreme Court jury last week of two charges over the alleged adulteration of core material from the company's No. 2 drill hole at Nullagine. Mr Justice Burt will not sentence Cutler before July 17. The deliberations of the jury of seven men and four women took about 7J hours, including about two hours on Monday. The trial, which was the longest in this state for many years, lasted 26 sitting days. It began on May 22 and continued with only 11 jurors after May 30 because

the twelfth juror, a man, had' Ito undergo an urgent medical j ■ operation. Sixty-eight witnesses were called for the Crown and i eight for the defence. Cutler did not give sworn : (evidence but made a state-: ment from the dock. He was charged with committing two offences on| March 19, 1971, each relating to a written statement! alleged to be false in saying' that an assay report gave an: average of 5.33 per cent nickel over the section of the core from 665 feet to 690 feet. The Crown alleged in the first charge that Cutler concurred in making the statement and it alleged tn the second charge that he knew that the statement tended to give Leopold's shares a greater market value than they possessed.