SUPREME COURT Men found guilty of kidnapping

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33455, 9 February 1974, Page 15

SUPREME COURT Men found guilty of kidnapping

After a retirement of ont hour and 40 minutes, a jury in the Supreme Court yesterday found Petei Thomas Shearer, aged 27, a cook, and Allen Graham Urquhart, aged 30, unemployed guilty on a joint charge of kidnapping Brian Wayne McLaren, aged 21, a labourer, at Balclutha on September 12. Shearer and Urquhart were also found guilty or joint charges of robbing Mi McLaren of $35 and unlawfully taking his car, valued at SSOO. Shearer was found guilty, and Urquhart not guilty, on a charge of assuming Mr McLaren with intent to injure. Mr Justice Macarthur remanded both accused i custody to February 15 fo sentence. Mr G. K. Panckhurst ap peared for the Crown, Mr .

ejE. Butler for Shearer, and ( ziMr A. J. Forbes for Urqu-i tlhart. rl Both accused pleaded not' i Iguilty to all charges. ■ DETECTIVE’S EVIDENCE ’ Detective Sergeant D. N. ‘ Scott said that Urquhart had 1 made a written statement inj ■ which he admitted taking ' Mr McLaren’s wallet, which contained about $35. t When interviewed, Shearer! 1 had admitted assaulting Mr) r McLaren, said Detective Ser-' ’ geant Scott. Shearer had J said that Mr McLaren had J been arrogant, and so he t “whacked” him. Shearer said in evidence t that at Balclutha Mr McLaren had been talking about

ithe number of fights he had ■had at Bluff with freezing I workers. Mr McLaren had i claimed that the racing driver, Bruce McLaren, was his uncle. Accused and Mr McLaren had started sparring and "acting the goat.” |Mr McLaren had got carried away and had started to hit hard, and so accused had given him two hits back. Mr McLaren had tried to “put 'the boot in,” and so accused (had hit him hard a number ,of times. Accused did not know at what stage he had knocked Mr McLaren's tooth out. Shearer said that apart from that fight he had not used any force on Mr McLaren. He had seen money changing hands when he was driving about 70 miles an hour but that was all he knew about Mr McLaren’s wallet. When Mr McLaren had been combing his hair, accused noticed a lot of his ihair fall out. Urquhart did not give evidence.

ADDRESS TO JURY Mr Forbes, in his address r to the jury, said that Mr I McLaren had had opportu-l nities to get away if he had| wanted but had not done so.! Urquhart should be acquitted on the kidnapping charge. The defence was that Mr McLaren had been prepared to go along with the two accused from the outset. a Mr Butler said that Mr|s McLaren had only a vague;a recollection of what had S happened, and there were / grave inconsistencies in his J evidence. I n