SHOP-BREAKING

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 285, 28 August 1931, Page 5

SHOP-BREAKING

Three Men Charged TWO PLEAD GUILTY Pistol, Bludgeons & Mask Through investigations made by the police into, several cases of breaking arid entering, three men appeared on various charges in the Police Court yesterday before Mr. E. Page, S.M, At one stage during the hearing an attache case, containing a heavy automatic pistol, two serviceable loaded bludgeons,, and a black mask, was produced in court. It had been found in a room occupied by one of'the men, but its contents had not, according to'the evidence, been brought at any time into use. Two of the meh admitted their guilt, and were committed for sentence, but the third pleaded not guilty and was committed - for trial, bail being allowed. Accused were Leslie Gordon Clarke, seaman, aged 22; William Edward Brown, cabinetmaker, aged 23, and Sydney John Hodge, carpenter, aged 35. AU three were charged jointly with attempt- , ing to.break and enter a Self-Help store at Petone. Clarke was charged further with break- ’ ing and entering Woolworths, Cuba Street, with being unlawfully in possession of the automatic pistol, and with breaking and entering the shop in Cuba Street of J. W. Batten with intent to commit a crime. Clarke and Brown were charged also with breaking and entering the premises of the Saracen Shoe Company . and stealing shoes to the value of £6/7/10. There was a final charge against Clarke of assaulting Janies William Batten at Island Bay last year with intent to rob him. Clarke and Hodge pleaded guilty, and Brown pleaded not guilty. . Mr. Meltzer .appealed for Brown and Hodge, and Sub-Inspector Ward conducted the case for the police./ y l .' . Happenings at Petone. j ; Ronald Charles Patchett. labourer, Petone, said that on Friday night, July 31, he went to the Self-help for some groceries and arranged that if he were not back • before the shop closed the groceries were to be left for him at the back. He went round to the back about 10.30 p.m. and saw. two men standing in the porch. He ' asked if they had seen his groceries.

They said “No.” He saw a sack in the corner and mentioned that it was his, which the men denied, saying it was theirs. The men then moved from the porch carrying a green suitcase and went along Jackson Street toward the railway station. Gedrge Denham, cleaner employed by the Saracen Shoe Company, Wellington, who on August 5 was the last to leave the shoe company’s factory, said that when he arrived back the following day he found that' the main door was closed, although not locked. Some shoe boxes were open and some lying on the floor. I Valentine Leslie Sinclair, warehouse manager for the shoe company, also gave evidence. By their numbers and sizes he identified a number of pairs of shoes as having been taken from the shop that night.’' Room-mate’s Story-

Edward John Cavanagh, a messenger, said he and Brown, who had been living at the same boarding-house, shifted into a bach at the. back of a house in Abel Smith Street. , ' - - .< ■ ■ Brown told Cavanagh that .he had broken into a shop “down by the pipe bridge’ ’and had been chased. He had lost a brace and bit and a brief bag into the bargain. t . On August 8 Cavanagh remembered Clarke and Brown and a sailor called “Albert” being at the bach together. Albert was sitting on the bed trying on a pair of shoes and an attempt was being made to get him to buy them. He saw two other pairs of shoes there. - Geoffrey Arthur James Walter Simmonds, floorwalker employed at Woolworth’s, Cuba Street, said that on June 17 they found the shop had been broken into overnight. Nine tins of tobacco valued at 12/9 were the only things known definitely to be missing. James William Batten, pawnbroker and jeweller, said that at'7.3o p.m. on July 19 he left his shop in Cuba Street. Next morning he found that the shop had been broken into and holes bored in two of the doors, although nothing was misEvidence About Assault. On the night of September 2, 1930, Batten had been going home along Derwent Street' toward the Esplanade, Island’Bay. Just before he got to a cutting near the Esplanade he~passed a man who was standing on the kerb on the eastern side. Batten walked on for some 20 yards before realising that he was being followed by someone walking faster than he was. f . “Suddenly I felt something going wrong with me,” Batten said. “I didn’t feel anything, biit I tried to collect my thoughts and in doing so I turned round. Just as I turned round somebody hit me. with some heavy article on the right side of the cheek bone, close'to tny eye. My face was cut by the blow andil called out. The man' ran away.” . Detective William McLennan said he

had taken Clarke to the Petone Police Station at 10 p.m. on August 30. Clarke in a statement admitted the offences of breaking and entering. He also interviewed Clarke with regard to the assault on Batten at Island Bay. Clarke admitted having assaulted a man as deDetective McLennan also interviewed Clarke with regard to the assault on Batten at Island Bay. Clarke admitted having assaulted a man as described. Hodge, when interviewed, said that he wanted to make a 1 clean breast of it, nni tell the truth about his participation in the attempt to break and enter the SelfHelp store. He made a statement doing so. Detective McLennan, with Detective Murray, interviewed Clarke with regard to the breaking and entering at Woolworths. Clarke admitted this offence also. What Detective Kane Found. Detective William Kane said that on August 13 he searched the bach in Abel Smith Street. He found under the bed. a suitcase which Brown said was his. There were shoes in it which Brown said had . been given to him by Clarke. Brown denied having taken part in breaking and entering the Saracen Shoe Store or the store at Petone. In an attache case which Brown said had been brought to the bach some days previously by Clarke, Detective Kane found two loaded bludgeons, a .45 Colt automatic pistol, a fully loaded magazine containing seven cartridges, a dozen other cartridges, and a fairly large triangle of black cloth’ with eye-holes cut in it which was used apparently as aimask. Mr. Meltzer submitted that the charges against Brown of breaking and entering should be dismissed for the redson that no jury would convict on the admissible evidence against him. There was not one • tittle of evidence to connect Brown with the breaking and entering at Petone and' at the Saracen Shoe Store. It might be that some other charge could be preferred against him. Clarke pleaded guilty, Hodge pleaded guilty on the breaking and entering charges,‘and Brown pleaded not guilty. The two former were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence, and Brown was committed for trial. Brown was allowed bail in £250, with an approved surety of £250 on condition that he reported daily to the police. \ The magistrate deferred consideration of certain summary charges until after the prisoners had appeared in the Supreme Court. These charges included the charge against Clarke of being in unlaw-. ful possession of the automatic pistol. . .