‘Attack terrified neighbours’

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 5

‘Attack terrified neighbours’

??° ors J'i ere 10cR ed and lldre P hld under a bed and arrK-Prt o S . et when four men rrived at a two-storey State smashed 1 U P per Riccartono^n h Windows - broke ° p ®" a door - damaged two cars and terrified neighbours. Mr Justice Cook and a r„ ry . Were told >n the High' Court yesterdav. Trevor John Mann, aged v'it„u nd p len Alexander a ? ed 17 ‘ botb unemployed, have pleaded not S ll * ll *’ t 0 a charge of being members of an unlawful assembly which attacked a property at 38 Auburn Avenue. and to a charge of damaging the house with intent to intimidate the occupants on August 26. 1980. Mr B. M. Stanawav appears for the Crown. Mrs D. Orchard for Mann and Mr C. D. Eason for Veitch The trial will finish todav. Opening his case Mr Stanawav said that about 9.15 p.m. on August 26. 1980. the home of Mrs Hill and her children in Upper Riccarton was attacked by a group of

young men armed with various weapons including a crowbar and a baseball bat. They smashed windows and a door and damaged two cars belonging to members of the family. The occupants of the house feared for their safety and the police were called. Three young children hid upstairs because they were afraid of being attacked. Neighbours were frightened. Mr Stanaway said.

Carmel Kathleen Rice, of 36 Auburn Avenue, said that she was first alerted when her dog and the dogs next door began barking. She sawfour males walking across her front lawn.

One of the men jumped over the fence into the property next door. He knocked on the back door several times and when it was not opened he kicked in a glass panel. The man was carrying a long shiny object. There was the sound of smashing glass from the front of the house and one

man called out: ‘Tm going to kill you Rocky Hill." "I was frightened as I did not know what was going to happen next. I did not know whether they were going to come on to my place," Mrs Price said. Myra Frost, of 34 Auburn Avenue, said that her little fox terrier became very disturbed just after 9 p.m. She saw men wearing jackets and jeans getting out of a car parked in front of her home. When she heard the sound of breaking glass and the sound of objects being used she telephoned the police who told her that her call was the fifth they had received to the disturbance. “I was just getting ready to go to bed and was very r upset by what happened. I'm • getting too old for that sort' of thing.” Mrs Frost said. Ricky Hill said that he was. in the kitchen of his home at. 38 Auburn Avenue getting i something to eat when he' saw a Ford Escort stop a; couple of houses down the;

lUdu. Hiuurci was iiui home at the time. Four persons got out of the car and approached the house. He ran to the sitting room to tell his older brother. Rocky, that there was trouble because four men were coming towards the house. Also at home were his sister. Leone, his older brother. Hudson, and his two younger brothers. Jimmy and Matthew. He was told to take his two younger brothers upstairs and hide. He locked the back door. From an upstairs window Ricky Hill said he saw Mann and Veitch in the group. There was the sound of a lot of breaking glass.

For a time he hid under his mother's bed. Matthew was in a linen cupboard and Jimmy was in his sisters bedroom. When he went downstairs he saw the four men running towards their car. The front door had been broken open and three panes of glass in it were smashed. Windows had been broken and his mother's car which was parked in the street had been damaged. He knew the two accused because they visited his brothers. Rocky and Hudson, when they lived at Bailey Place, Spreydon. It was just lately that they had "fallen out."’ Rickv Hill said.