Escaper stole knives

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 4

Escaper stole knives

PA Auckland A woman who attempted a double bank robbery escaped from Carrington Hospital the next day and tried to rob a Mount Albert woman at knifepoint, a court has heard in Auckland. Pauline Anne Gilmore, aged 32, unemployed, of Takapuna, appeared before Mr W. J. Mitchell, S.M. in the North Shore Magistrate’s Court.

She pleaded guilty to charges of attempted robbery armed with an offensive weapon, demanding a sum of money with menaces, escaping from Carrington Hospital, and stealing a fishing knife.

Prosecuting, Sergeant J. Cryer said that as a result of an emotional upset Gilmore had visited a Milford hardware shop on September 27 and put a )scm knife in her handbag. She had visited the Milford branch of the Bank of New Zealand where she had presented a note demanding monev, and had produced a knife. The alarm had been raised, and Gilmore had been stopped as she tried to leave the bank.

Her handbag had been found to contain a knife and $2BOO in cash. She had told the police she knew she had done wrong. She had wanted money to go to Australia. She had said she needed help. Sergeant Cryer said Gilmore had been taken to Carrington Hospital, where she had escaped about 7.20 p.m. on September 28. She had made her way to Mount Albert, where she had entered a house and had taken three carving knives. When residents had told her to stop she had warned them not to come near her as she was armed. At another house in the - same street she had accosted a woman, holding a knife to her chin. She had allowed the woman to go back into her house to get money, and the woman had set her German Shepherd dog on the defendant. Sergeant Cryer said that when spoken to by the police Gilmore had said she knew what she was doing but did not know : why.

He said she was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Gilmore was convicted on all the charges and remanded in custody to October 9 for a probation report and sentence. A further charge, which is indictable, was related to an alleged successful armed robbery at a second bank at Milford. On this charge Gilmore was remanded to appear again on October 9 to set a date for the taking of depositions.