MAGISTRATE’S COURT Robbers gagged and bound woman

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33803, 27 March 1975, Page 16

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Robbers gagged and bound woman

A woman, who was gagged, bound and robbed by three intruders at her home in Lyttelton about 9 a.m. on January 23, gave evidence against the alleged intruders during the taking of ! depositions in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Messrs R. W. Cormack and H. A. R. Tulett, Justices of the Peace, were on the Bench.

Timoti Herewini, aged 22 (Mr A. K. Grant), Barry John Singh, 34 (Mr E. T. Higgins), Bunny Friday Harrison 32, (Mr A. C. HughesJohnson), and Steven Tame Tame Kino, 21 (Mr Higgins), are charged with robbing the woman, Mrs Betty Joan Bachop, of Selwyri Road, Lyttelton of $l2 in cash, a portable television set valued at $250 and various other items, worth a total value of $370.10.

The prosecutor, Detective Sergeant N. W. Milsum, said that the defendant Kino was an accessory in that he knew the others had committed the offence and assisted them although he had not entered the house. The other three defendants appeared in court handcuffed to each other. After evidence was given from seven of the 15 police witnesses the hearing was adjourned till today. SAVING Tn evidence, Mrs Bachop said she was working on her sewing machine about 9 a.m. There was no-one else at home and she had answered a knock at the back door. Two men, identified by the witness as the defendants, Herewini and Singh, were at the door and made inquiries concerning another address in Selwyn Road that they purported to be looking for. A few moments later the men returned and again knocked on her door. When she answered it they “grabbed my hands and held them down, pushing me into the kitchen,” witness said. “They held my hands behind my back and told me not to yell. The younger man (identified as the defendant Herewini) asked me for money, so I gave him $l2 from my purse,” she said. “The other man then went

upstairs and I told the man holding me that 1 hadn’t been, well and thought 1 was going! to faint,” she said. He had replied, “Faint, lady.”! He then grabbed the collar of a blouse she was sewing and put it in her mouth. The other man ' came downstairs with her nightdress and wrapped it round her , mouth. “They then pushed me upstairs to my son’s bedroom and t saw a third intruder rummag- ! ing through my husband’s things,” she said. The third . intruder was identified as the ' defendant Harrison. HANDS TIED ’ She was pushed into her son’s 1 room and laid face down on the bed. Her hands were tied bei hind her back with the cord [ from her son’s stereo, and her feet were tied with flex from an electric blanket. • The door was shut and the ( men left the room. ; Mrs Bachop said she then tried , to get off the bed. She managed to get to the window and attract • the attention of a woman pass- | ing the house on the street , below. This woman was known to the witness and said she would get ! help. SWOLLEN FACE Witness then managed to open the door and ran out of the I house to a neighbour’s place. : “The nightdress was still wrapped around my mouth and the flex was still on my hands,” she said. These were untied by tlie neighbours. She suffered a swollen face, sore lips, shoulders and wrists because of them. Under cross-examination by Mr Grant, witness said that she had identified the intruders at an identification line-up at the police station the next morning. Nine men were paraded before her and she had recognised the three men after she "sat and thought about it for five : minutes.” All the men were Maoris. PAUSED Witness said she had paused before identifying them because she “wanted to make sure.” There was no doubt in her mind that these were the men. Miss Carolyn Maria Harper, a shop assistant at Lyttelton, said in evidence that at 8.30 a.m. she had been at work when she was disturbed by a noise. She looked out the window and saw a car having “great difficulty” going up the hill nearby on Dublin Street. Witness said about half an hour later she saw a man walking towards the car which was parked down the road, carrying a television set, a rifle, and a transistor. She was unable to identify the men. Beverley Dawn Lublow said that about 8.45 a.m. she had

i answered a knock on the door, i. Two dark-skinned men had, asked directions to Selwyn Road. I She identified the men as Harritson and Kino. Mrs Lublow said she consulted : her husband and then gave; i tlie men directions. Mavis Florence Pattison of 5 ■ Selwyn Road said she had left; home about 9.30 a.m. that morn- • ing as she had an appointment; I at 10 a.m. As she walked past 2 • Selwyn Street she heard a mufi fled voice cry, “Help me.” I She looked up and saw Betty ; Bachop and then went for help, witness said. "SCREAMING" I Daniel Pettifor, who lives next ‘ door to the complainant, said that ■ about 9.40 he heard Mrs Bachop I coming up the pathway to his ■ house crying, “Help me, please i help me Shirley,” in a “screaming voice.” ! Witness said a nightdress was knotted around her face and he I removed this and found she was 1 bleeding from the mouth. t A flex binding her hands was - also untied by Mr Pettifor while t his wife telephoned a doctor and the police.