Theft charges dropped for lack of evidence

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 14

Theft charges dropped for lack of evidence

A man who was alleged by the police to have assisted Martin Owen Reid, after Reid had stolen a 1967 Volkswagen van last February, succeeded in his defence, in the District Court yesterday, of a charge relating to being an accessory in the theft of the vehicle. The defendant had pleaded not guilty to a charge that, knowing Reid had stolen the van, worth $3OOO, he assisted Reid to enable him to avoid arrest. At the start of the defended hearing, Judge Ross withdrew, on the application of Detective Sergeant R. Homan, who prosecuted, a charge

against the defendant of having stolen the van on February 11. After he dismissed the other charge, the Judge made a final order suppressing the defendant’s name. This had been sought by defence counsel, Mr B. P. Callaghan. The charges were brought following police inquiries into the death of Martin Reid, whose body, with a rifle shot in the head, was found beside his car in a riverbed in North Canterbury on May 31. The police contended that Reid stole the van for the engine, to replace the engine in his own, similar vehicle; and that the de-

fendant had assisted Reid by disposing of some of the stolen vehicle’s parts, and in cutting up the vehicle body so it could be removed. A witness who knew Reid was called by the police to give evidence yesterday, but said she could not remember anything in relation to Reid’s having come into possession of the stolen van. The Judge upheld defence submissions that the case lacked the necessary ingredient of theft. There had been no evidence that the defendant knew the van, from which he took some parts, had been stolen by Reid.