DESPERATE CRIMINAL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 75, 29 March 1926, Page 3

DESPERATE CRIMINAL

SHOT DEAD BY POLICE

EXCITING MAN-HUNT.

(From Our Own Correspondent)

SYDNEY,. 19th March.

Desire, La Court, one of Sydney's most, desperate and elusive criminals, was shot dead by a policeman of Richmond, a small town some forty miles from Sydney, last Sunday, after a chase which had lasted since Friday night. La Court specialised in stealing motorcars, and in them travelling round the suburbs robbing private residences and shops. He had a short career, "as lives of criminals go, but it was crammed with encounters with police sufficient .to satisfy • the longest-lived of evil-doers. His end came as the result of an exciting hunt, in which'the net of the law slowly closed round this elusive human. ;

Supposed to be a Belgian, La Court (an assumed name) was really,a German, who arrived in Australia with a compatriot shortly before the war. When war broke out the two. were interned in Queensland, but they attempt-' ed to escape. La Court succeeded, but his comrade was shot. He afterward! became renowned as a runner and cyclist, and in the latter capacity was champion of an amateur club in ■: Sydney. He' was unable to secure work, owing to his inability to speak proper English, so he said, and this led to Ws entrance into crime in 1921, when he first came into the clutches of the.law. Seven times he was convicted of various offences, but for every crime sheeted home to him there were half a dozen committed by him, say the police, that were never proved. An example r curred. only a few months.ago. " The police approached the house at a Sydney suburb where he was living and demanded admittance, knowing that they had proof that he had recently committed a series of robberies. They knocked at the door. l La Court answered them. The police waited for him to come out, but they waited just too long—La Court had slipped away by the rear of the,house. That night La Court eluded his pursuers although fired at on several occasions. A few days later he was seen to leave-a motor-car at a surfing beach and enter the surf. As he later emerged dripping from .the water, . a' police sergeant stuck the point of a revolver into his ribs, marched him to his own motor-car, a^d-then took him to the police station. Several charges were then levelled'against La Court, but owing to insufficient evidence he was acquitted.on all'of them. "FLIGHT RATHER THAN FIGHT."

He was soon back at his old .trade. Last week a number of robberies ■were committed^ all of which were believed to have been done by La Court, including a £400 theft at the suburb: of Hornsby. He seemed to 'be working the North Shore, and a special police vigilance was kept for him and hii motor-car. Late on Friday night two policemen saw an unattended car at Lindfield, and, waiting, presently saw La Court approach it. They called on him to halt, but he turned and r»n. Several shots were fired, but his fleetfootedness carried him out of revolver range. When morning came, a large posse of police and detectives were on hij trail, scouring the suburbs on the northern side of the harbour. Thai afternoon word came that he was to be found in a house at Manly. The searchers hurried there. They burst into the house, but La Court, clad only in singlet and trousers, dived through a side window. He made his way for several miles on foot, and then forced a motorist at revolver point to give him a lift to Chatswood, where police again saw him, chased him, fired shots at him, and again lost him. Shortly afterwards the theft of a motor-car was reported from a neighbouring suburb, and immediately surmising that La Court was the robber, all police stations were notified. At 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, the police at Richmond saw in the yard of a hotel a car answering tho description of the stolen one. Informed that the man who had driven it there bad gone for a run in a tourist car, the police waited the return of the latter. When it did, La Court stepped from it. "La Court, I want to have a word with you," said the senior of the two police. The man took no heed, but immediately dashed out of the back door of the hotel, making for the back fence. Both the policemen called on htm to halt, but La Court, taking no heed, the younger of the two policemen, Constable M' Greoeh, raised his revolver, intending to "wing" him in the legs. Just as he was pulling the trigger, hn stumbled. , The barrel of the revolver shot up, the bullet went high, and entered the back" of La Court's head. The criminal collapsed unconscious, and he died four or five hours later without regaining consciousness.

Thus within a yard or so of temporary safety, came the end of Desire £a Court, who was only 30 years of age. "One of the most elusive criminals we have had to deal with for years," was the manner in which the head) of Sydney's metropolitan police described him. He seldom carried firearms, trusting rather to his fleelness of foot, and his motto in the Rogues' Gallery will be, "Flight rather than 'fight."