Youths on arson charge

Press, 25 November 1977, Page 14

Youths on arson charge

Three youths appeared in the Magistrates Court yesterday on charges relating to the $500,000 fire which gutted the Carmen Road factory of Amalgamated Packaging, Ltd, late last month. Shane Ronald Tibbotts, aged 18, a glass worker, was charged with wilfully setting fire to the factory premises. Graham David Miles-Wat-son, aged 17, a machine operator, was charged with wilfully setting fire to the factory premises and also with breaking and entering the factory. A companion, Allan Walter Maxted, aged 20, an unemployed retreader, appeared on a charge of breaking and entering the Carmen Road factory. All the offences occurred on October 23. No pleas were entered by the three men. Mr P. J. McAloon, S. M., remanded J Tibbotts and Miles-Watson in custody to December 1. Bail was opposed by the police. In the case of Maxted, bail was allowed at $750, with a similar surety, and with daily reporting at the Central Police Station. The fire at the Amalgamated Packaging factory broke out just before 4 a.m. It was visible over most of Christchurch and calls flooded emergency switchboards as flames engulfed the highly flammable contents of the factory. At the height of the fire, 10 units, including a snorkel appliance, were at the scene. ROGUE AND VAGABOND David John Connor, aged

33, an unemployed Australian, was remanded in custody to December 1 after earlier in the day being granted bail. Connor was charged with being a rogue and a vagabond in that he collected contributions by false pretence — by purporting to collect on behalf of the “Bryan Williams medical fund.” Sergeant M. P. Caldwell told the Court that Connor, alias Stephen Bruce Johnson, faced five other charges — theft, conversion, bigamy, and attempting to make a false statement to a Social Welfare Department officer — at Masterton. Connor told the Court that he had a de facto relationship, wanted to get a job, and that he had “given up running.” Sergeant Caldwell said if the defendant’s assertion that he “wanted to stop running” was to be taken seriously, the only way to help him was to put him in custody. INDECENCY CHARGES Because the “bulk of the witnesses” were not available, a man, aged 31, was further remanded to December 12 for the taking of depositions. The man, who had his name suppressed in the interim, faces nine charges of indecently assaulting boys aged 12 and 13. Bail of $l5OO was allowed. DRUG CHARGE Douglas Cowan, aged 35, a driver, was remanded to December 1 on a charge of supplying hashish oil to a

police constable on August 14. No plea was entered. The defendant was allowed bail of $5OO. with a similar surety, and daily reporting to the police. 33 CHARGES James Michael Thomas, aged 24, unemployed, was convicted and remanded in custody to December 1 for a probation officer’s report and sentence on 33 charges. Sergeant B. G. Saunders said the defendant had obtained accommodation, cash, groceries, meals and air travel to a value of $1760 in offences committed in Christchurch and at Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin. Thomas pleaded guilty to all charges, which included false pretence, forgery, incurring debt, breaking and entering, and receiving. INDECENCY CHARGE A man aged 20, charged with doing an indecent act or a boy aged 14, was remanded, without plea, to December 1. The man, who was granted interim suppression of name, was undergoing psychiatric treatment, the

Magistrate was told. Final suppression of the name of the complainant was made by the Magistrate at the request of the police. THEFT CHARGE William Eric Douglas, aged 42, unemployed charged with stealing on November 23, a pack and contents. valued at $3ll, the property of Joan Lenora Rezek, was remanded in cus< tody to December 1. Bail was opposed by the police, as the alleged offence was committed while the defendant was already ‘on bail. FALSE ALARM A youth aged 17 who wilfully gave a false fire alarm to the Christchurch Metropolitan Fire Brigade on November 18 was convicted and fined $4O. He was also ordered -to pay compensation of $l4O — the amount involved in turning fire appliances out to the Hornby Hotel, where ths defendant had sounded the fire alarm. At the time of the incident, the defendant had been drinking with three friends.