TRANSMITTING SET ON RACECOURSE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 99, 21 January 1936, Page 10

TRANSMITTING SET ON RACECOURSE

Fines Imposed by Court

MYSTERIOUS MESSAGES FROM ROSEHILL

(Received January 20, 11.25 pan.)

Sydney, January 20.

A sequel to the discovery of a portable transmitting set on a man at tli” Rosehill racecourse was tlie conviction in the Magistrate’s • Court of Rufus Theodore Naylor, aged 52, investor: Charles Rowles, aged 26. radio mechanic; Bertie Sheeley, aged 47, clerk; and Walter Bedford, aged 25, mechanic.

The cases bad been adjourned pending the recent High Court judgment on tlie validity of the Wireless Telegraph Act.

Bedford was lined £5 . with £7/15/- costs for having, without iiutliorisation, used an appliance for ti ansrnitting messages by .wireless. Naylor. Rowles and Sheeley we.re charged with having been concerned in Bedford's offence. Naylor was lined £5 and Sheeley and Rowles £2 each. All three were ordered to pay £2/10/ccurt costs. I

On a similar charge. Eric Gordon, aged 32, pleaded not guilty and was remanded.

The prosecution stated Bedford, who had a transmitting set Strapped to his body, sent information from the racecourse to a spot outside where there ''•as a receiving set and a broadeasting set belonging to tlie radio station 2K.Y. Tlie defence stated defendants had good grounds for believing they were acting within their rights, but after the High Court’s decision had come to court at tlie earliest opportunity to plead guilty.

A Sydney message of April 6 lust said: Official radio inspectors hare lately been intrigued by mysterious messages transmitted from suburban racecourses, and have adopted all sorts of means of discovering the delinquent. Their efforts were rewarded at Ihe Rosehil! course when, with (be aid of a vest-pocket shortwave det ecl or, a man was observed liehaving suspiciously and constantly fidgeting with his pocket in I lie saddling paddock. Police, acting in concert with the radio inspectors, searched the mau and allegedly found a most ingenious transmitting set with aerial and battery strapped to his body. Two other men were later discovered in possession of a miniature receiving set located near ihe broadcasting stand outside the course.