A PECULIAR CASE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 110, 12 May 1919, Page 8

A PECULIAR CASE

BUSINESS MAN BEFORE THE COURT CHARGED WITH BEING A ROGUE AND VAGABOND ALLEGED ATTEMPT TO ABDUCT A GIRL. A case presenting some ' unusual. features came before Mi\ F. V. Frazer, S.M., in the Magistrate's' Court this morning, when Howard Nattrass was charged with being a rogue and vagabond, having been found by nighfc on the premises of William Strangman, 11, Fallowfield-avenue, without lawful excuse. Mr. M. Myers appeared for the defendant, who pleaded not guilty. Acting Sub-Inspector Emerson, who prosecuted, said that on the night of 9th May defendant was found, on the premises of Mr. Strangman. There had been some trouble for months between defendant and the Strangman family. „. Mr. Myers said there was an action pending between Mr. Strangman and defendant for £3000 for seduction, and he urged therefore that the case at present should be confined to the question of. whether or riot defendant was on the premises. ' ■ , ' . His Worship said it might be necessary to make some reference to facts so as to allow him to judge the case. Acting Sub-Inspector Emerson urged that the police would be justified in calling evidence to show defendant's object in going to the house—to see Mr. Strongman's daughter and to get her away. The police did not suggest that the man went there for burglarious purposes. . Four men went to the house, and one of them said he had come from the Society for the Prevention of . Cruelty to Children. While he was talking one of them called out; "Now is your chance. Get her away." ■ Mr. Strangman. went outside and saw Nattra-ss and another man standing near a window. William Strangman saidi his daughter Edith had been employed by Nattrass as. a typiste. A little after 10 o'clock on Monday night last four men walked up to his house. The first man spoke to him,. and witness asked who he was. Witness added that he remembered' having seen him that. .morning in'Majori-! banks-street. The man said .he came from the Society for the Prevention of ' Cruelty to Children, and that he had seen him" catch his daughter by the hair. His' Worship: How old.is the girl? . Witness: . Eighteen years and five months. Witness said he ordered the man away, but he would not go, and called out: "Get her out now, get her out quick." A Mr. Fahey who was with'him ran out, and said that two men were at the window of the room occupied by his daughter Edith. Witness looked and saw the men in the yard next to his premises. He recognised Nattrass ■• as one of the men who was running. .:, ' . Acting Sub-Inspector Emerson: .Have you any idea what the men's object was? Witness: I thought it was to-get my daughter away. . ' ■; , Mr. Myers : How far away were you from the man you. say was Nattrass? Witness : About 20ft. He knew Constable Lefevre, and was talking to him before he •came into Court. He was not told that there was something he had not to forgot. . A few nights previous to Friday Nattrass had been on the premises. Witness did not see him, but he heard him in the house. He had. never seen him previously at night time about his premises. He only gave the police the names of Howard and Harry Nattrass as the men he saw. DAUGHTER1 KEPT GUARDED. ' Mr. Myers: Your daughter's window is barred?— No. You have so arranged ' the window that she can't get out?— She could get out from the top. Is the door of the room kept locked?— .No. . You keep her there closely guarded ?— No, she can go out with me or her mother. . ' . . But not-by herself?— No. - Be-examined, witness said he kept his daughter guarded to prevent her getting away. She went away once and stayed away for. four weeks.- He had warned Nattrass on a previous occasion to keep away from the house—that was about two months ago,. when, he understood, he had gone to get business information from .his daughter. To Mr. Myers, witness stated that when .Nattrass saw his daughter on that occasion, he said to her : "You know what the lawyer said. You can walk out of your-house at any moment." EVIDENCE AS, TO IDENTIFICA- * „. TION. James Vincent Fahey, who also lived in Fallowfield-avenue, said that, about 10 o'clock on Friday evening he saw Nattrass driving a big covered CardUlac car up Majoribanks-street in the direction of the. avenue. Witness went back soon after to the Strangmans' house and reached there about 10.5 p.m. He went into the house, and just afterwards he saw Harry Nattrass and Aubrey. Gualter, and two other men whom he did not know. One of them said they belonged to the Society for the Protection of Women and ChildreD, but they refused to give their names. Mrs. Strangman suggested ringing up the police. He heard- a- noise near Miss Strongman's bedroom, and going there he saw Howard Nattrass and another man. /He got one blow with a stick at defendant, but all the men got. away. It was a perfect moonlight night, and he knew Nattrass well. As soon as the men saw him they made a rush for the fence. To Mr. Myers, witness said he knew Gualter very well by sight. He was practically certain it was' Gualter. He did not know thab Gualter had said he was in a different part of the town at the time. - ' To the Magistrate, witness said that when he was on the premises he had a conversation with Gualter as to Nattrass's relations with the Strangman family. A VOICE AT THE; WINDOW. Emma A. Strangman, wife.of the first witness, said sfro was. in her daughter's room on the night of the incident. She heard a man say '.'Edie," several times. It was the voice of Howard Nattrass, and her'daughter became very agitated. She had no doubt about the voice, she had known. Nattrass for about two years.. About two nights previously she saw Nattrass-and two other men in tbe lane adjoining the premises. She -had had a lot of trouble in the matter during the past two months. As soon as her daughter heard the call "Edie,"' she put on her coat. . . . Acting Sub,-Inspector Emerson: Was his object to take her away?— Yes, undoubtedly. Has he previously taken her away?— Yes, from the, hospital. THE DEFENCE. To Mr. Myers: Witness said she knew defendant's brothers, but did not know that any of them had a voice like Nattrass's. Her daughter did not answer when she heard the voice; she jumped off the bed. Mr. Myers, for' the defence, said he proposed to call evidence to 'show that the witnesses were miotaken. It was, ho urged, quite reasonable to assume that the witnesses were under a wrong impression. Mr. Gualter was secretary of a company of which Nattrass was a director, and that waa the extent of

their connection. Ho called Einar Haar, porter at the Midland Hotel, where Nattrass, he said, had been staying for a while. He . saw Nattrass last Friday night; he. came into the hotel between 10.40 and 1.0.45. Witness was in the hall at the time. He asked for a drink and for the Evening Post. Witness took them up in the lift to Nattrass's room, and there found him near-;, ly undressed and almost ready for bed. i Witness remained in the hotel until about 11.45.- Later Nsftrass was called up on the telephone, which was switched on to his bedroom. That would be about 10.30. • ■ „ .-..,■ ■To Acl ing-Sub-Inspector Emerson, .witness said he did not know whether Nattrass was in his room whom the telephone was .switched on. It was. a common occurrence for Nattrass to pull up his car at the hotel'and *cave it standing outside. It was some time on Saturday that Mr. Nattrass told him he wanted him to come and give evidence. He said: /'You may be required to give evidence as to'whether you saw me last "night." - ■ . RATTLED BY THE POLICE. Aubrey Gualter said he was secretary of the Nattrass and Harris Motor Company. He was not in Fallowfield-avenue on Friday iiight. He passed Courtenaypkee in a tram and spent the evening with some friends in Matai-road, Hata-i----tai, from 8 to 10.45 p.m. He did not know the witness Fahey, and he did not see him on Friday night. To Acting-Sub-Inspector Emerson, witness .admitted, that, when he was spoken to by the police he L refused to make any statement. He was not told at first that the question referred to Fallowfield-avenue. He knew the Strangman's house; he had been there once and seen Mrs. Strangman. He did not answer the police, question because he had anything to fear. ' This was a free country and not Russia. The Magistrate : It might have saved a great deal of trouble if he had given the information at the time. I think he has been foolish. Acting Sub-Inspector Emerson : Did you this morning in tho passage say to a woman : "Swear by Almighty God that you saw. Nattrass between twenty and a quarter to ten?" Witness said he merely told the woman the form of the oath she would be required to take. She had already said she knew .the time she saw Nattrass. To Mr. Myers,' . witness said . the police, on seeing him on Saturday, took a hostile attitude. They said that il he could, give a reasonable excuse why he was on the premises, or that he had been asked to go there, the Magistrate would probably take.no further proceedings. He did not know, then .what Fahey had said. ■ ■ The police, apparently, took it for granted that he understood they wore referring to the premises he had been on at Hataitai. To the Magistrate : -Witness said hB was rattled by the police. lie felt now that there was some conspiracy, and he felt hot about it. Mr. Frazer said he knew what was intended. Mr. Gualter was not mentioned. He had been spoken to about the ease,-"and had been asked to issue a a summons, against Nattrass. He had said he ■ preferred ■to • issue a summons against a man who could: be easily .found. . .; . • . - .-■. DEFENDANTS-DENIAL.;., Defendant, giving evidence on oath, said :he was not. oh Strangman's premises on Friday night. The last time he was there was about two months ago, in the day time, on. business connected with the company. At 10 o'clock on Friday night he was in bed at the Midland Hotel, which he entered about twenty minutes to ten. . He spoke to the young lady at the counter, and remarked on the fact that she was there late. < He went upstairs to bed, and did not get out of bed that night. About 10.30 someone rang, him up on the telephone on .business. He was not in a motor-car that night. Fahey did not hit-him that night with a stick. ' Acting Sub-Inspector Emerson : Do you often go to bed as early as 9.45 ?— Yes. ■•■••■■ ■ How often?—Oh, two or three times a week. It depends. I was tired that night. He knew Fahey, who on one occasion stuck him up in his motor-car outside the Midland Hotel, and asked him as to the whereabouts of the girl Strangman. Re-examined, defendant, said ho did not use his car at all on the Friday night. . ' George' Barnes, liftman at the Midland Hotel, deposed to having- seen Nattrass enter the hall aboiyfc 9.40 p.m. on Friday. About five minutes later he took Nattrass up-, to his room, and later Haar went up in the lift with some refreshments, for Nattrass. He was on duty till 10 o'clock, and he did not see Nattrass during that .period. - .

Cross-examined, he said ha could not remember any one else he took in the lift; there were so many. You only remember Nattrass?—l know that I saw him coming in and that I did not see him go out. ' ■ \

(Proceeding.)