Man sent for trial on robbery count

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 13

Man sent for trial on robbery count

Initial inquiries by the police into an attack on an elderly caretaker of flats in Linwood Avenue on the evening of June 19 treated the case as a potential homicide. as it was feared the victim would die, said Detective W. R. Mitchell in the District Court yesterday.

He was answering questions in cross-examination by defence counsel (Mr A. N. D. Garrett) at the preliminary hearing of two charges against Michael Albert Momo, aged 25, unemployed. Momo was jointly charged with two younger men, and a girl aged 16, of robbing the caretaker, William Thomas Priston, aged 79, of a wallet and contents, and $62 cash; and of rendering Joseph Desmond Fitzgibbon, aged 55, incapable of resistance by using violent means with intent to commit an aggravated robbery. The preliminary hearing against the four defendants began on August 15. Evi-

dence against the other three was completed that day and they were committed to the High Court for trial on the two joint charges.

Momo had been remanded to yesterday for the completion of prosecution evidence against him. One witness, Detective Mitchell, remained to be heard.

After his evidence yesterday, Dr J. F. Mann and Mrs C. M. Holmes, Justices of the Peace, held there was sufficient evidence to commit Momo for trial on both charges. They remanded him in custody to September 13, pending a date for trial in the High Court. Mr Garrett reserved the defence. Sergeant W. J. McCormick prosecuted. The police alleged that the four defendants entered the flat of Mr Priston, who collected the rest for the flats in the two-storey building, to obtain money and attacked him and Mr Fitzgibbon as they watched television.

Medical evidence was given on the first day that Mr Priston’s injuries and subsequent medical condition precluded him from giving evidence. Mr Fitzgibbon gave evidence but could not identify the persons who he said held him in the flat while Mr Priston was being attacked.

Other flat occupants, or visitors, gave evidence of seeing a group of young people in the flats, near Mr Priston’s flat, and then run from the building to a car and drive off. One tenant said he had seen two persons in the foyer. One of these was Momo, whom he had seen before visiting two women, also named Momo, who had previously rented flats in the building.

Evidence by Detective Mitchell of his questioning Momo, and the contents of a written statement from him, were suppressed from publication for the preliminary hearing, on grounds specified by Mr Garrett.