SUPREME COURT Youths found guilty of wilful damage

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33478, 8 March 1974, Page 13

SUPREME COURT Youths found guilty of wilful damage

Wayne Thomas Beyers, aged 20, Gary George Shaw, aged 21, concrete workers, and Lee Edward McDougall, aged 19, a lathe operator, were found guilty by a jury in the Supreme Court yesterday on a joint charge of wilfully damaging two windows and interior and exterior walls at the Christchurch Central Police Station to the value of $549 on January 1. Mr Justice Roper remanded the three accused in custody to March 15 for sentence.

The jury took one hour and 10 minutes to reach a verdict.

The damage to the station was caused by rifle shots. Messrs R. L. Kerr and G. M. Abbot appeared for the Crown; Mr M. J. Glue for Beyers, Mr K. N. Hampton for Shaw and Mr D. J. R. Holderness for McDougall.

■All accused pleaded not guilty. Detective Sergeant Nicholas William Milsum said that after hiding in a cupboard under a stairway in a flat in Cashel-Street he heard the three accused and two girls talking. One accused said: “It’s a good job we threw it out the window.” The accused told each other of the explanations they had given the police. A news flash came over the radio stating that shots had been fired at the police station. The radio was turned up loud. There was laughter and shouts of “bang bang” by the accused. The police party which had left the address a short time before returned and went upstairs. He came out of the cupboard, said witness. When interviewed at the Central Police Station on January 3, Beyers denied

that he had ever seen the .250 Savage rifle before and said that his finger prints could not be on it, Beyers denied that he was present when the rifle was fired at the police station. McDougall was interviewed on January 4 and he made a written statement in which he admitted being present when the shots were fired but he denied firing any himself. He declined to say who had fired the shots. To Mr Glue Detective Sergeant Milsum said that he did not know that when the incident was first publicised through the news media that it was regarded as an act of vengance for the mass arrest of bikies at Kerrs Road on December 30. Witness did not make such a statement.

Mr Glue: You gave evidence that you concealed yourself in a cupboard. That is rather unusual behaviour isn’t it? — I have never done it before so it would be unusual.

Is it an approved technique in the police manual? — There is no mention of it in the manual.

Was this a method of detection you remembered from your childhood days? — No.

Witness said that he had arranged for the police party to return to the flat after an interval and when it did he sneaked out from the cupboard. Mr Glue: None of the occupants of the flat were aware of this cloak and dagger touch on your part until you told Bevers about it later on? — That is correct. In his address to the jury Mr Glue said that the evidence against Beyers did not prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt. Beyers had denied that he had been at the flat whefi the shots were fired. Mr Holderness said that there was no evidence upon which the jurv could safely conclude that McDougall was more than a by-stander. The mere fact that he was in the area when the shots were fired did not make him a party to the crime. Mr Hampton said that the police case was an appalling mess and that it contained no evidence to implicate Shaw.