Dog among stolen items recovered

Press, 8 July 1986, Page 4

Dog among stolen items recovered

A pedigree Rotweiler dog, valued at $6OO, was among stolen items recovered when the police carried out a search of a Hereford Street address last month, said Sergeant T. Smith in the District Court yesterday. The dog, stolen from New Brighton, had since been reunited with its owner.

George William Murray, aged 19, unemployed, admitted receiving the dog, and committing four burglaries from which property, to a total value of $2605, was stolen.

The defendant, represented by Mr A. M. Mclntosh, was convicted by Judge Anderson.

He was remanded in custody to July 10 for a probation report and sentence.

In explanation Murray told the police he committed the offences because he needed money to buy alcohol and drugs. On two further charges of burglary, and one of unlawfully taking a vehicle, Murray was re-

manded to August 26 for a defended hearing. INCEST CHARGE

Trial by jury was sought by a man, aged 34, charged with committing incest with a girl, aged 12, on various dates between January, last year, and January, this year. The defendant, whose name was suppressed, was remanded, at the request of counsel, Mr D. C. Fitzgibbon, to September 4 for the taking of depositions.

When he first appeared in court last week, the defendant faced a charge of having sex with the girl on June 16.

Yesterday Sergeant Smith asked that this charge be withdrawn and the incest charge be substituted.

Bail, set at $l5OO, was renewed. DETONATORS

While accepting that there was no sinister element to Geoffrey Douglas John McLay’s possession of explosive detonators, it was a matter of concern to the public, said the

Judge. McLay was convicted and fined $3OO.

Sergeant Smith said on June 12, McLay, aged 23, a baker (Mr G. R. Lascelles), was at the Central Police Station on an unrelated matter. Fifteen detonators were found in a plastic container inside the defendant’s photographic bag.

The defendant said he found them when on the West Coast in 1982.

Although the photographic bag was regularly in use, the compartment in which the detonators were found, was not used.

Mr Lascelles said no explosives of any kind were found in his client’s bag. The detonators by themselves were quite harmless.

In the same compartment as the detonators were some batteries, dated 1983, which gave credence to the defendant’s explanation that the compartment was not in use, he said.