CHARGE OF CONSPIRING TO BLOW UP BUILDING

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 1

CHARGE OF CONSPIRING TO BLOW UP BUILDING

Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Oct. 3. Three men accused of kidnapping a police constable early today have been charged with conspiring to blow up t’ e Indian High Commission, the Wellington police said this evening. All three have been remanded in custody to Monday.

Two men were arrested earlier today and charged with kidnapping and burglary, and at midday a third person was arrested on the same charges. When the first two appeared in court, one was granted bail and the other remanded in custody.

Soon after the court appearance, the police said they laid a further charge, resulting in the rearrest of the one granted bait All three appeared in court late this afternoon. They appeared on charges of burglary, kidnapping, and conspiring to blow up the Indian High Commission. The two men who appeared in court originally were jointly charged with detaining Neville Arthur Sawyer with consent obtained by duress with intent to cause him to be confined or imprisoned. The two men, aged 20 and 25, also faced a charge

of breaking and entering the office premises of Horokiwi Quarries, Ltd, Hutt Road, Petone. Mr A. K. Monaghan, S.M., remanded them to Monday for a date to be fixed for the taking of depositions. An application for bail was heard in chambers. The Magistrate allowed the older man bail—s7so in his own recognisance, with two sureties of $750 —and remanded the other in custody. The charges arose from an episode in the early hours this morning. They stem from the alleged kidnapping of Constable Saw-

yer at gunpoint during a burglary investigation near Wellington. The police said that tlfree men abandoned a police car in the Wellington suburb of Chartwell after they had taken Constable Sawyer from a quarry near Petone, where they had been disturbed an hour and a half earlier.

Constable Sawyer was shaken but unharmed after being forced to accompany the alleged kidnappers with what he thought was a gun barrel held against his neck. He was left tied in the car, and blindfolded, but managed to struggle free and obtain help.