ALLEGED BREAKING AND ENTERING

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 250, 20 July 1939, Page 6

ALLEGED BREAKING AND ENTERING

Three Men In Napier House IDENTITY OF ONE IN QUESTION Evidence called to support the charge against Geoffrey Spicer Kean, aged 22, clerk, of breaking and entering the house of Miss K. M. Reston, Napier, with Intent to commit a crime was heard in the Supreme Court, Wellingyesterday. It has been alleged that he and two other men were associated In an affair in which Miss Reston was knocked down in the dark in her kitchen. The other two men have already been tried. When the court adjourned till today the evidence for the Crown had not been completed. Mr. Justice Reed was on the bench. The Crown,Prosecutor, Mr. W. 11. Cunningham, conducted the prosecution. Mr. H. F. O’Leary, K.C., with him Mr. W. P. Rollings, appeared for accused. Knocked Down In Dark. The real issue, said Mr. Cunningham, in opening, was whether Kean was one of the three men concerned in breaking and entering the house. Miss Reston was the secretary of the Gaiety Theatre Company and had charge of the keys cf the theatre and the theatre safe. On Easter Monday night she returned home about 9.50. She opened the kitchen door and, finding the electric light would not switch on, went to strike a match, but was struck and knocked down. Her head was knocked on the floor, but she screamed. Neighbours came and two men, Courlander and Matterson, were found in the house. Other neighbours saw a man come out of Miss Reston’s gate and he was chased, but not caught. Nothing was taken from the house. Courlander and Matterson would both swear the third man was Kean. ' The three left Wellington by car on Easter Monday and arrived at Napier about 8 p.m., Mr. Cunningham submitted. Kean was- fairly well acquainted with Napier and knew Miss Reston, having visited her house as a boy and having had meals there, the last one about New Year. He had an aunt in Napier also. On Tuesday Kean was stranded at Woodville and had to arrange by telephone for his fare back to Wellington. To a detective on Thursday Keen said he knew of the affair at Napier, his aunt having warnedi him not to say anything to the police about it. He stated that he left Wellington by car with Courlander and "Matt” on Easter Monday, but parted from them at Paekakariki.. There he became acquainted with a girl, whose surname he did not know, and with her he met another couple, also strangers, who took him on Tuesday to Woodville in a car.

Evidence along the lines of Mr. Cunningham’s address wag given by Miss Reston and, neighbours who came to her assistance and a visitor to Napier who chased a man along the Marine Parade and on to the beach, where he disappeared. Two neighbours who saw the man outside Miss Reston’s house said they had failed to identify him at an identification parade. Entered House for Meal.

Roy Nicholas Courlander, hotel steward, said Kean took him and Matterson to the house in Napier, and Kean and Matterson entered it while he remained outside adjusting his spectacles. The scuffle and screams then occurred inside. It was not true that Kean parted from them at Paekakariki. Cross-examined, he said he had been sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for breaking and entering the house, but the Court of Appeal had altered it to a term of probation.,. He had endeavoured to show at his trial that he had gone to Miss Reston's house for the innocent purpose of getting a meal. He understood from Kean that Miss Reston would not mind their having a meal in her house.

John Kitching Matterson gave evidence similar to Courlander’s. He said he followed Keajj into the house after giving him the torch, and was groping about in the house in the dark when he met the woman and fell over with her. He was convicted of breaking and entering, but acquitted of assault. It was not true that Kean remained at Paekakariki. Under cross-examination, he admitted he lied to obtain the car for the holiday trip, which was to have extended to Gisborne, When he was invited into the house ho did not question the right of Kean to take him into it. The trial will continue today.