Further remand for man on Reefton arson charge

Press, 28 February 1978, Page 4

Further remand for man on Reefton arson charge

A glass sorter, aged 20 who is charged with setting fire to the premises of Reef ton Motors, Ltd, on February 18 was further remandec in custody to March 6 bv Mr B. A Palmer S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. No plea was entered by Robert Bruce Rennie to the charge of arson. Bai! was opposed by Ser-i geant M. P. Caldwell. Damage estimated to be about 8200,000 was caused] by the fire. FURTHER CHARGES Two men charged with an attempted robbery at the; Springfield Hotel on Febru-j ary 12 were further remanded in custody to March 8 for the taking of depos-| They are Owen Francis | McCauley, aged 37. and Sant Ram Shankar, aged 21, both machine operators. The two men are jointly charged with the attempted robbery of the hotel licensee. Murray Roy-j don Alfred Carlyle, while armed with a shotgun. Three further charges were laid against each of the two defendants yesterday. Both were charged with: having possession of a I doubl e-barrelled shotguni with intent to commit rob-| bery, and that while being armed with the shotgun, and, a semi-automatic shotgun, they assaulted Donald Wil--1 i a m Armstrong at Springfield with intent to rob him. The third charge relates to an alleged offence at! Springfield where the twoi men were said to have] broken into and entered a> garage owned by Leslie George Menzies in Pocock Road with intent to commit! a crime. All the alleged offences! occurred on February 12. ASSAULT CHARGE “You do not greet people! irrespective of who they are in this manner,” the Magis-1 trate told Gregory Paul But-, ler. aged 18, who appeared on a charge of assault. Butler pleaded guilty to assaulting Paul Gregory Whitehead, a detective, on February 25, after mistaking! him for a member of the “Hampshire Street Mob.” For punching the detective in the eve Butler was convicted and fined $6O. MOTORING CHARGES A hotelier, aged 60, was told by the Magistrate to! ‘ put his affairs in order” inl view of the possibility of al custodial sentence being im-| posed when he appears for sentence on March 9. Alexander Sons pleaded] guilty to a charge of driving! a motor-car on Lincoln Road!

| md failing to stop after ar accident had occurred and t< I driving the vehicle while the ‘ oroportion of alcohol in hit plood exceeded 100 milligrams of alcohol to 100 millilitres of blood. I While driving his Mercedes about 10 p.m. on October 8. the defendant, had rur | nto the back of a parked 'car, causing it to hit a lamppost. There were no occupants in the vehicle, said Sergeant Caldwell. Later, the defendant had denied the offence and said a friend of his had been the driver, but this proved to be untrue. The .Magistrate, in telling! the defendant to put his affairs in order, commented: that the defendant already! had four previous alocholrelated driving offences. DRUG CHARGES A man who was returning to Rolleston prison after a week-end home leave was found to have in his possession 10 deals of cannabis lead and four Mogadon tablets and in explanation he told the police he had been forced by inmates to bring the drugs into the prison. Bevan David Carnegie, aged 22, pleaded guilty to the charges but later admitted that the drugs were for his own use. The Court was told that the defendant was serving a 15-month prison term and that he had three months left to serve. The drugs were found on Carnegie on his return to the prison after having had four days leave at home. The Magistrate said that he was prepared to accept that the cannabis deals were for the defendant’s own use and for this offence he added one month on to his current jail term. On the possession of Mogadon charge, Carnegie was convicted and discharged. BROTHEL CHARGE A woman, aged 36, who is charged with keeping a brothel in Linwood was remanded to March 22 for the taking of depositions. The alleged offence occurred on September 16 last , year but the woman was reI manded on several occasions — the last of which was yesterday — while a decision of the Court of Appeal was awaited on an important point of law — the definition of what constituted a brothel. The woman's name was i suppressed in the interim. I CANNABIS SEEDS A saleswoman, aged 22. who was found in posses-i sion of 101 cannabis seeds! on her arrival at Christ- 1 church Airport from Sydney on Sunday was convicted; fined $6O. The Court was told that! Carol Davidson was given | the seeds at a party about three months ago and that she forgot she still had them in her possession. The; defendant is in New Zealand: for 21 days holiday. The Magistrate said that if; the fine was not paid im-| mediately the defendant would be liable for seven days in jail. (Before Mr F. G. Paterson I S.M.) ASSAULTED WOMAN "This was an occasion of which you can take no! pride. Your behaviour was: disgraceful,” said the Magis-' trate to Alec Faafalasi Va-I loaga when he appeared fori sentence on a charge of as-; sault. Valoaga. aged 29, a fish

splitter, had pleaded guilty, o assaulting a woman on, February 11. The woman had: seen hit with a chair which; disintegrated and he had punched her. As a result the complainant had suffered a swollen black right eye and numerous bruises to her; body. On the defendant's use of, the chair, the Magistratesaid it was fortunate that! the complainant did not suffer some permanent injury. | Counsel (Mr D. C. Dann) said that his client had beendrinking from shortly after I noon until about 10 p.m. on! the day of the assault. The! complainant was a girl he had been living with and on; returning to his home had!

been annoyed at not finding her there. Later when he did find the complainant, the defendant! admitted having “given her! a hiding,” said Mr Dann. Since the assault the com-j plainant had visited the! defendant while he was held in custody at Addington and it seemed. Mr Dann said, that the relationship would continue. “You deserve to go to prison.” said the Magistrate, who convicted Valoaga and sentenced him to nine months periodic detention. He was also released on pro-1 bation for 12 months and ordered to abstain from alcohol for 12 months by taking out a prohibition order.