TELL-TALE MARKS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1933, Page 11

TELL-TALE MARKS

SLOT-TELEPHONES RIFLED

CONVICTED BY CAMERA

Though at first ho pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate's Court yesterday to charges concerning the rifling of slot telephones, George Henry Trillo, aged 26, a seaman, reversed the plea after hearing the scientific photographic evidence brought by tho police. He faced three charges of wilful damage to slot telephones amounting to £2 10s in each case, and three charges of stealing pennies of a total approximate value of £2 11s 6d, the property of the Post-master-General, and a charge of being a rogue and vagabond in that he had in his possession an instrument of housebreaking. • ' Detective-Sergeant L. Revell, who prosecuted, said that three public telephones were'broken open on the morning of .December 5, one in Austin Street at 2.30 a.m., one in Hawker Street at 2.50 a.m., and one in Oriental Bay-; at 3.20 a.m. Shortly after the boxes were .found to be broken the accused was discovered by Sergeant Edwards in Roxburgh Street, and in his possession were a pair of gloves and a screwdriver. Marks on parts of tho broken telephone boxes exactly corresponded with those made by tho screwdriver./: Detective- Long demonstrated with the three broken telephone boxes and the screwdriver, which, were produced in, Court, how marks on parts of the telephones possessed similar, peculiarities to those of tho screwdriver. A small piece broken off each side of tho screwdriver blade made it narrower than the standard blade of that type. Supporting evidence was given by Detective Burke.. ; PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. ] Photographs, enlarged twelve diameters, of the marks on the telephone boxes and of the screwdriver blade) wero produced by Samuel Hall, a draughtsman and- photographer of the P. and T. Department. A comparison of the photographs showed, ha said, that not only the major points, but also certain minor characteristics of the marks on the boxes and the end of the screwdriver agreed absolutely. . . ■ Mr. R. Hardie Boys submitted that for technical reasons the vagrancy charge could not be substantiated, and tho police withdrew it. Trillo thereupon reversed his plea to guilty on the Qther charges.' • , "There is no doubt that the advances of science do create a difficulty for the wrongdoer," said Mr. E. Page, S.M., "because, although a tiny screwdriver was used -for* forcing the metal receptacles, the magnified photographs of both show Unmistakably that the screwdriver was tho instrument used for breaking open the boxes." "We know quits a' lot about this mail)" remarked the detOcfive-sergeant, who added that Trillo had 17 previous .convictions. Though agreeing with counsel that the worst of Trillo's offences were committed when ho was only 12 years of age, the Magistrate imposed a sentence of three months' imprisonment on each of the'first two'■charges of theft, the sentences to be cumulative. On «ach of the other four charges he was convicted and ordered to Come up for sentence if called upon within two years.