Wrong-way burglar

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 4

Wrong-way burglar

The attempted burglary of a supermarket failed because two men tried to force the out-door inwards and jammed it, Mr Justice Cases and a jury were told in the Supreme Court yesterday. The jury took 25 minutes to find Joseph Lane Ruka, aged 28, a labourer, guilty on a charge of attempted burglary of Clarksons Supermarket in Breezes Road on December 23 and he was remanded in custody to June 22 for sentence. Mr -N. W. Williamson appeared for the Crown, and Mr A. K. Grant for ’Ruka. Evidence was given that at 3.30 a.m. Ivan John Sisson, a sales engineer, who was staying in Breezes Road, heard sounds coming from the supermarket. -On looking over the fence he saw two men trying to force a door with a metal object. Mr ’ Sisson got dressed and called the police from a telephone box. When the police arrived

Kuka and Matthew Carruth were sitting in the doorway drinkihg from a bottle of beer. The door behind them had been slightly forced. Because the two nun had tried to force the outdoor inwards it had jammed. Underneath 'he mat on which they were sitting was a wheclbracc. When asked what he was doing there. Ruka made no reply, Mr Williamson said. The defence called no evidence, and in his address to the jury Mr Grant said that the Crown had failed to prove its case because of discrepancies in the evidence which did hot show that Ruka was one of the two men Mr Sisson had seen trying to force the door. If Ruka had been guilty of the offence he would have tried to make off when the police arrived instead of calmly sitting there drinking. Earlier this year a jury found Carruth guilty of attempted burgary.