CONSTABLE'S CLIMB

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 21

CONSTABLE'S CLIMB

MAN FOUND IN BUILDING

LABOURER CHARGED

The story of how the nightwatehman and Constable Ward climbed the scaffolding around the Gas Company's building in Courtenay place early in the evening of the 17th May in search of a nwi believed to be on the premises and their discovery of the intruder in the premises of Fashions, Ltd., on the second lloor, was told to Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when Arthur Tilling, alias Telling, a labourer, aged 38, was charged with breaking and entering the warehouse of Fashions, Ltd., with intent to commit a crime. Sub-inspector Lopdell prosecuted and Mr. J. Meltzer appeared for the accused. Evidence as to locking the premises at noon on Saturday, lVth May, was given by Marion Clark, secretary of the ' firm of Fashions, Ltd. When she returned on Monday the stockroom was i~ disorder. Henrich William John Bornholdt, the custodian employed by the Wellington Gas Company, said that at 7.35 p.m. on 17th May, his attention was attracted by the falling of gravel and the breaking of glass. Three stories were being added to the building, on three sides of which scaffolding had been erected. He went outside, and after a. few minutes saw a flash of light on the second floor: He called a constable, who was near, and he and the constable climbed up the scaffolding to the second floor.1 Outside an open window was a hack saw, and one hinge of the window was broken. After some difficulty the constable got inside. Witness then ivent around to the front of thj building, und on going upstairs had some difficulty in opening the door of the premises of Fashions, Ltd. He pushed it hard and found the accused inside. The constable asked the accused if there were any moro men 'there, and the accused replied that there were, and that the constable had better look out for himself. Asked why he was there, the accused said something about a sleep or a "doss," but witness did not quite understand it, as he was excited. Constable A. S. Ward corroborated the evidence of the previous witness, and said that unless the man was inside the building there was no other way for a person to got inside, except through the window. Asked what he was doing there, the accused said he . was a plasterer's labourer working on'the building, and_ that he had returned for some tools to fix up a hole in the back yard at his home, but had: got into the wrong place. Witness could only .smell slight traces of alcohol on the accused. At the conclusion of the evidence for the prosecution, the accused pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. On condition he reports daily to the police, bail was allowed in his own bond of £100 and one surety of £100.