Man acquitted of receiving

Press, 30 September 1988, Page 5

Man acquitted of receiving

A jury in the District Court yesterday acquitted a man on three charges of unlawfully • receiving firearms and a telescopic sight which were said to have been stolen in a burglary of a Timaru man’s house in May last year. On the jury’s verdict, reached after a. retirement of 3 l / 2 hours, Judge Erber discharged the defendant, Alan William French, aged 39, a building consultant. French had pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawfully receiving two high-power rifles and a telescopic sight, together valued at $1561, between May 17 last year and February 12 this year. The trial began on Tuesday and the Judge summed up yesterday morning, after counsel’s final addresses. Mr M. N. Zarifeh appeared for the Crown and Mr G. E. Langham for French.

Evidence in the trial was that French bought the rifles and telescopic sight for $3OO from a man he had not seen before, or since, in a hotel bar. He later sold them to a man for $4OO, after deciding to give up shooting because of the deaths of two shooting companions in a motor accident. The rifles eventually were sold to a Christ-

church arms shop. In his final address yesterday, Mr Zarifeh submitted to the jury that contradictions in his evidence indicated that French had not been truthful when he said he did not know or believe the rifles he purchased had been stolen. Mr Langham said it was possible that .the man from whom French bought the rifles had sold them, “in all innocence,” in need of money. He referred to the “unreliable” witness called by the Crown, who had purchased the weapons from French and sold them to the arms shop and who had “lied on oath twice” when giving evidence. The Judge also referred to the “unreliability” of this witness in the wit-ness-box, and warned the jury it would have to be very careful when considering his evidence. This witness had lied in evidence at the trial, said the Judge, and lied at the preliminary hearing in July, relating to the date he had purchased the rifles. He was untruthful about the length of time he had had the rifles before disposing of them. The witness had said he told the lies because of his concern that he would be implicated in a charge of receiving, the Judge said.