Magistrate calls theft of hay 'despicable offence'

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34146, 6 May 1976, Page 3

Magistrate calls theft of hay ' despicable offence'

Silas Sehvyn Roger Derrett, aged 28, the proprietor of Horse Haven at Glenroy, was fined $lOO in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday for what Mr F. G. Paterson. S.M., described as a “despicable offence”. Derrett and his mother Valerie Zairaida Evelyn Der rett, aged 56 (Mr C. M. Mar shall for both), pleaded no guilty to a charge of stealing two bales of hay, valued a $2, the property of Grahan Gough. Mrs Derrett was als< Convicted and fined $5O. Opening the Crown cast Sergeant M. L. White saic that because of hay thefts it the Hororata area a “vigilante group” had beet formed among the farmers. Evidence was given b; Maurice Raymond Wood ham. an insurance agent that on March 27 he wa: alerted to the fact tha someone was near a barr that was close to his house He said he ran to the barr and found the defendants in side. Derrett was holding t bale hay in his hands. Witness said Derret threatened to kill him. Wit ness then yelled to Graham Gough the owner of thi barn, who was running to wards them. The Derretts then drove away, and were followed bj Mr Woodham and Mr Gough in Mr Gough’s car. After about two miles Mr Woodham and Mr Gough fount bunches of hay on the road Mr Woodham said it hac been dark and he had not seen any hay in Derrett’s car. A youth aged 16, from Hororata, told the Court he

• had been watching the Derrett heme from 10 p.m. to! ) 2.30 a.m. He said he saw - someone leave the premises i about 2.30 a.m. He then ! alerted his father. I Constable K. A. Munro, of (Darfield, told the Court that • there had been reports of hay thefts during the winter I of 1975. There were more • complaints in the first three ,1 months of this year from I farmers in the Hororata- ) Greendale area. :) Constable Munro said that ;jon the morning of March 27 t he was telephoned by Maui rice Beliagh, who told him > that someone had been seen stealing hay. He then drove ; to Horse Haven, where he I was met by Derrett, , Derrett told him that he had been in town all day 1 and had just returned from his late grandmother’s house , in Sumner. He had stopped '_ outside Mr Gough’s haybarn to fix the spark plugs of his ! car and had been met there by Mr Woodham. i He had had to stop sevjeral times on the way home (• to fix the spark plugs and . the wiper blades. i’ He had denied absolutely ! that he had been attempting .Ito steal hay from Mr ;!Gough’s barn. ) Mrs Derrett told the Court. ■ that she and her son had .gone to Christchurch that • afternoon and then to a . friend’s place in Rangiora. ■ They then went to a house , in Aorangi Road where they • visited friends before going . to a house in Sumner at 8.15 i p.m. They left Sumner at midnight and travelled home • to Glenroy. ) Mrs Derrett said the alleIgation that they had stopped I at Gough’s hay barn was “a i complete fabrication.” In evidence Silas Derrett

' said Mr Woodham’s story (about seeing him in the barn i was “a tissue of lies.” “I was not near any hay barn • at all,” he said. In summing up the MagisI trate said there was ob- | viously a lot of suspicion directed at the Derretts in • the area and the Court had to be careful that the case ; did not turn into a witch-

. hunt. However, he said, he • found the prosecution evidence to be accurate and the story a« told by the Derretts j to be “a tissue of lies.” I “You are sufficiently associated with farming to know that these are despicable i offences,” the Magistraie (said. : He ordered Derrett to pay • witnesses’ expenses of $7B.