SEAMEN IN TROUBLE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 16 November 1928, Page 11

SEAMEN IN TROUBLE

THEFT OF BOTTLES OF LIQUOR Five unemployed seamen appeared before Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court to-day on charges of drunkenness and tho theft of two bottles of liquor and two measures, valued at £5, the property of Percy Herbert Hayward. The accused were William Henry Smith, aged 29; James Cope, aged 32; John MAuley, aged 27; Stephen O'Toole, alias Stephen Tools, alias James Hoga'n, aged 20; and Michael James Coyne, aged 54. All five pleaded guilty to the first charge, but not guilty to the second. Percy Herbert Hayward, the licensee of the Foresters' Arms Hotel, said that the five accused and another man came into tho hotel early yesterday afternoon, but on account of their demeanour and general behaviour the witness refused to serve them. Witness then went into another bar. He heard a sound, and, coming back, found MAuley on the wrong side of the bar with a bottle of liquor in his hand. The witness took tho bottle from MAuley and the accused loft the hotel. In Uie meantime the witness had communicated with the police, and during tho afternoon the five accused were arrested in other hotels in the city. The other man could not bo found. Cope, when arrested, had been searched, and one of. the .measures had been found on him. The Magistrate said that it was clear that Cope and M'Auloy were guilty of theft, and thoy would bo convicted. There was some doubt about tho others, and they would bo discharged. Cope and MAuley wero each sentenced to 21 days' imprisonment, and on tho charge of drunkenness each of the accused was convicted and discharged.