The courts Neighbour noted night callers

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 5

The courts Neighbour noted night callers

A widow wn u . I<4 a her sleep disturbed by visits *‘at all hours of the night” to a house next door to her filled six notebooks with the times during the day and night when visitors arrived and; departed. She also noted registration plate numbers of visitors’ vehicles during al period of eight months, she I told the Magistrate’s Court, yesterday. This evidence was heard during the taking of depositions before Messrs D. H. Hemsley and R. C. Holland, Justices of the Peace. An ur employed masseuse, aged 23, was charged with aiding the keeping of a brothel between September and April in Christchurch. The name of the masseuse and the place where the alleged offence occurred were suppressed. The Court found that a prima facie case had been established and the accused was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.

The woman said that after some tenants moved into a house next door in March, 1977, she had noticed, that men and girls, aged about 18 to 25, had come to the house. "I tried to sleep in every room in the house but the banging of doors and the revving of cars kept me awake,” she said. Some of the girls had lived there and others had left early in the mornings in taxis, said the woman. She described some of the men as being ‘‘very well dressed, some Chinese, and others possibly Greek,” as-j certained by overhearing? them talking as they went? up the drive of the house. “There were sometimes! five or six men at a time who? would stay an hour, an hour) and a half, half an hour, and'

some were just in and out of the house,” she said. The note-taking had begun in August, 1977, and in March, this year, she had given the notes to the police. She related to the Court an incident that happened I last September. i A Yugoslav boy had come Ito her house and asked if | the woman next door was home because there was no answer at the house. He had been very agitated, and had asked her to give the neighbour $4O. The first time witness had seen the accused had been in February when she had arrived at the alleged brothel with another woman and man. A man, whose name and occupation were suppressed, told the Court that he had visited the “knock shop” about half a dozen times. He said that on one of these occasions he had been met at the door by the accused who had taken him straight into a bedroom.

I “I had sexual intercourse with her, put my clothes on, paid a charge of $3O, and went home,” he said. A police constable, whose name was also suppressed said that under the instructions of Detective G. D. Church, the detective in charge of the case, he had investigated the premises. He had gone to the house on April 5 about 7.30 p.m., arriving by taxi. He had been met by a woman who took him into a bedroom and talked to him for a few moments. She had left and returned with the accused and had introduced her befo.e leaving the room. “The accused and I sat on a double bed and talked of general things and I asked her how much she charged.” The accused had said that

she charged $5O, and the other woman got $lO. She had then taken off her shoes. The constable made an excuse that he would return later on as he was meeting his brother and friends at a hotel. He had asked if he could bring his brother back. He said the accused had i laughed and said: “As long as it’s not an undercover guy; as long as he’s not with the vice squad.” “We both laughed and she said it could be arranged for my brother,” said the constable. He returned about 9.45 p.m. after having had discussions with Detective Church. The accused had opened a side door to the house and let him in. “I made an excuse that my brother had ‘chickened out’ and could not afford $50,” said the constable. The accused had said, “No p_„, no play,” and so the constable had given her two $2O notes and a $lO note. She had then undressed and got into bed.

“I undressed down to my underclothes and at that time heard a commotion coming from the side door,” he said. “I made an excuse that I wanted to go to the toilet and put my trousers and shirt back on.” From the toilet window he had waved a white hankerchief outside, a signal pre- ' iusly arranged with Detective Church. When the constable went back the accused had been fully dressed, and he had assumed she was suspicious. rtfter that two detectives had raided the house with a search warrant. Detective G. D. Eaton said that he had found $BO and a tube of lubricating jelly in the accused’s handbag.

In the room he had found stained face-cloths which were analysed by the D.S.I.R. as having semen on them. More face-cloths had been found in a drawer by her bed and a jar of vaseline and various contraceptives had been found.

Detective Eaton had then arrested the accused. She had told him that she he not had intercourse there that night and that she had just been visiting. The accused was further remanded to June 16 on two charges of having cannabis leaf in her possession and possessing a needle and syringe.