Jury considers robbery count

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 4

Jury considers robbery count

The High Court jury in the Spreydon armed robbery case was still considering its verdict last evening after having retired at 3.15 p.m. Two young men have denied a total of 11 charges arising from an early-morn-ing raid on a house in Coronation Street which the Crown alleged was to obtain drugs. John Terence Mason, aged 22, a farm labourer and Michael Edward Norman, aged 23, a gardener, pleaded not guilty to charges of robbing Cameron Gordon Macllquham of $220 while armed with a rifle, unlawfully detaining him and Sandra Lee Norman, kidnapping Brian Gregory O’Donnell, and injuring him.

Mason denied a further charge of robbing Sandra Norman of $66. The trial, before Mr Justice Cook and the jury, began on Tuesday. Neither accused gave evidence or called witnesses. Mr D. J. L. Saunders appeared for the Crown, Mr K. J. Grave for Mason, and Miss E. H. B. Thompson for Norman.

Evidence was given by Crown witnesses that Mason and Norman bust into a house in Coronation Street in the early hours of July 20, with a .22 rifle and demanded drugs and money. Mr O’Donnell and Norman went to Lyttelton where they obtained cannabis and Mr O’Donnell took the opportunity to telephone the police. Their car was stopped as it was returning to Coronation Street.

Constable S. M. Willcox said that about 2 a.m. on July 20 he stopped a car being driven west on Brougham Street outside Nazareth House. The driver, Brian O’Donnell, had a swollen, bloody eye and was extremely nervous. Mr O’Donnell said that he was the person who had telephoned the police from Lyttelton and said, “Please help me.” Witness pulled him out and took him to the rear of the vehicle. Norman was in the front passenger’s seat and was ordered to put both hands on the dashboard and was removed from the vehicle. When searched on the footpath Norman had $249 in notes in the hip pocket of his jeans. Tucked under the front waistband of his underpants was a plastic bag of cannabis.

After being arrested on a charge of possession of cannabis, Norman was handcuffed and taken to the Central Police Station. At 7 a.m. Norman was awakened in his cell and, after the usual caution, was questioned. Norman said that he and Mason had got a lift to Coronation Street because Brian O’Donnell had “ripped him off on dope and a leather jacket.”

Mr O’Donnell was just getting out of bed when Norman said he hit him with his hand and asked him for his dope. Mr O’Donnell said, “I’ll get it for you, Mike.” Constable Willcox said that Norman admitted having the rifle when they

entered the house. He refused to say where he had got it and said that he did not want to name names because if he did his head would be chopped off. “We asked O’Donnell for his gear and Mick (Mason) started going off his nut. I had the gun and gave it to Mick. It’s a dirty business dealing with dirty dope. I only used my hands and I’ve got the scars to prove it Mick started taking their stuff and I said don’t,” Norman had said. Constable Willcox related. It was Mr O’Donnell’s idea to get dope from someone and he said that it would take only five minutes. Norman said he offered to go with him and Mason was to stay with his sister and Mr Macllquham. While Mr O’Donnell was getting the drug at Lyttelton he telephoned the police but Norman said that he did not know that at the time. They then headed back to Christchurch. “I couldn’t understand why he phoned the cops because he was slitting his own throat,” Norman had told him, said Constable Willcox.

Questioned about the rifle, Norman said that he had got it from his place. Told that the police had it, Norman said, “Why don’t you just give me one and load it for me. It’s not worth living now.” It was admitted by Norman that some of the money taken from his pocket had been given to him by Mason but he did not know where it came from. It had been Norman’s idea to go to Coronation Street to sort it out.

“I had been thinking about it for a long time. He ripped me off and owed me. It was just eating at me so tonight I decided to do it. There is a lot of stupid stuff with him and my sister and it pissed me off — things about gear and so on,” Norman had told him, Constable Willcox said.

Asked how many guns there were at his place, Norman had replied, “A .303, a .308, a .22, and a shotgun.” Norman said that he did not know why he had taken the gun because he could “wipe off’ Mr O’Donnell with his hands. He was just keeping the guns for someone. There were no magazines or ammunition for them.

Asked why he could not tell about the guns, Norman had replied, “Man, it would be the finish.” Norman was generally calm but became upset when the firearms were mentioned. His eyes watered and he had difficulty in swallowing. Constable Willcox said that he was the officer in charge of the inquiry and had been in regular touch with Mr O’Donnell and Sandra Norman. He saw them after the taking of depositions on September 23.

When he attemped to locate them to give evidence at this hearing he could not establish their whereabouts but had since learned that they had gone to Brisbane. To Miss Thompson, Constable Willcox said that no

weapons were found in the car Norman had been travelling in. Mr O’Donnell could have got out of the car at any time. Asked if he had pulled her client’s jeans down on the street, Constable Willcox said that he had undone the zip and pulled the waist band of Norman’s underpants down. What did you do that for? — I was looking for weapons. Did you expect to find them down the front of his jeans? I have found many knives down people’s jeans. Is it normal to search a person as throughly as this on the roadside? — My information was that the incident had involved a firearm and I was not prepared to take any chances with my safety. There was no magazine or ammunition for the rifle taken to Coronation Street, Constable Willcox said. In his address to the jury, Mr Grave , said that it had heard from only one of the three complainants as the other two had fled to Australia and as a result there were great gaps in the Crown’s case. The Crown had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt. It could have been that Mr O’Donnell had gone willingly to Lyttelton to get the drug to recompense the accused for having “ripped them off’ previously. There was nothing to show that Mason had kidnapped either Sandra Norman or Cameron Macllquham. He had not taken them anywere. They had remained at their home.

There was no proof as to who had injured Mr O’Donnell or that he, had been acting under duress when he went to Lyttelton. Mason had no part in the alleged kidnapping of Mr O’Donnell. Mason had remained at the house in Coronation Street. The residents of the Coronation Street property were no saints. There had been reference to cannabis being kept there. There was such a lack of evidence against Mason that a verdict of not guilty should be returned on all charges, Mr Grave submitted.

Miss Thompson, in her address to the jury, said that not only was the evidence against Norman a little thin, it could only be described as skeletal. There was no proof that the two accused formed a common plan. The robbery charge against Norman was a “try on” by the Crown which had gone overboard in this case by throwing a great number and variety of charges at Norman in the vain hope that some of them might stick.

Norman could not possibly have detained Cameron Macllquham against his will because for most of the period he had been away at Lyttelton. None of the neighbours had heard any commotion at the address. The Crown had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt and Norman had to be acquitted on all, Miss Thompson submitted.