Burglar shows police scene of 234 break-ins

Press, 20 October 1986, Page 13

Burglar shows police scene of 234 break-ins

PA Auckland A house burglar has spent two days pointing out to the police the scenes of 234 Auckland break-ins for which he went undetected.

The man, Doc Cullen, aged 24, of Te Atatu North, was sentenced in August to four years imprisonment on 39 charges of burglary involving $140,000. The High Court judge, Mr Justice Wylie, described him at the time as a professional burglar who showed a total disregard of the rights and property of others.

Detective SeniorSergeant Barry Pickering, of the Henderson C. 1.8., said that the Minister of Justice had granted the necessary permission to take Cullen from Mount Eden Prison.

The exercise, he said, had proved highly successful.

Cullen had been given an assurance that he would not be prosecuted for admitting his part in the house raids in every corner of Auckland.

“He has certainly got a very good memory. He has been able to tell us what was taken from each house and the way he got in.”

Asked how the deal with Cullen came about, Detective Senior-Sergeant Pickering said: “We often visit prisoners to see if there are any other things that they would like to tidy up. “He didn’t exactly ring

us up and say: ‘Look here I want to help.’ Likewise, we did not go to him and turn on the thumbscrews.” Cullen’s motives for cooperating are unknown. “They (motives) are probably many and varied,” said Detective Senior-Sergeant Pickering. “Or perhaps he just wanted a day out of prison to go for a ride. "If nothing else, he will not have to look over his shoulder (for the police) every five minutes when he is released from prison.”

Mr Pickering said the identification of more than 200 burglary targets would assist to match the hoard of stolen booty which has cluttered the Henderson Police Station for the last six months and many outstanding complaints. “The property we have got sitting here is all his — there is no doubt about that.”

A police legal adviser, Detective Chief Inspector Barry Matthews, said the decision not to prosecute Cullen for the extra burglaries was “an exercise of discretion that is not unusual.”

It was sometimes more in the police interest to offer immunity than to lay charges.

Detective SeniorSergeant Pickering said it was likely that the inmate would again tour Auckland wedged between two officers in the back of a patrol car.