VAN HOLD-UP

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1934, Page 8

VAN HOLD-UP

BULLET FOUND IN DOOE

ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Before Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., today, Arnold Spencer Wilson, aged 25, a labourer, faced a charge of attempted murder, as a, sequel to the alleged holdup of a van driver, Herbert B. Kissel, on the Newton Road, between Templeton and West Melton, on April 10. A wire had been placed across the road, and it is alleged that after Kissel removed it and was driving off a bullet was fired at him from the cover of a hedge. The bullet lodged in the door of the van, but Kissel • was unhurt. Chief-Detective Dunlop represented tho police, and Mr. Russell appeared for the accused. Kissel gave evidence that he was travelling at thirty miles an hour when he noticed two wires across the road. The time was about 7 p.m., and it was dark and raining. He stopped the van and waited for a time, and as no one appeared he stood ai the side of the van and pretended to speak to someone inside to give the impression that he had a companion. Ho then went over and untied tho wires, which were tied to a tree and a. gate. Then he drove off at a fast pace. He had left the engine running. As he was driving away there was a thud on the side of the van. It sounded like a stone hitting the van. CYCLE TRACKS ON ROAD. When ho returned to thc^firm's store at Templcton, said the witness, he reported the matter to the police. Next morning, as he backed the van out of the shed, lie noticed a hole through the door, and later, with the aid of the police, ho found a bullet embedded in the leather. The position of the bullet was, just above that of his hip where he had been sitting. He had noted with the police that at the place where the wires had been stretched there was the track of a bicycle on muddy parts of tho road, and ho saw later how the track had continued to a gate up the road at Pliuimcr's Farm. Witness examined the tires on the bicycle (produced), and said that the back tire would make a similar mark. to tho track seen on the road. Witness knew tho accused, having served him with goods for twelve months. The accused had worked at farms in the neighbourhood, including Plimmer's. Witness had very little cash in the van on April 10. Kenneth Henry Charles Plimmer, a farmer, of Wecdons, said that the entrance to his farm opened on to Newton's Road, an isolated«road. On April 11 he found that two wires had been removed from a fence. Prints of crepe rubber-soled shoes were found nearby. A boy who worked on his farm had a pair of sand shoes, but the marks could not have been made by the boy's shoes. Webster Thomas Clivick, the boy employed by the previous witness, said that ho had not been near the spot where tho wires were removed on April 10. Witness had known the accused for fifteen months, and during part of the time the accused had lived in a hut a quarter of a mile from where the wires were found. SEEN CARRYING A GUN. Mrs. Barbara Dierck said that the accused called at her house on April 9. He was carrying a little gun or rifle on a strap. Tho gun was similar to that produced in court. Wilson rode away on a bicycle. Witness had a son Roy from whom she received a letter (produced), and after reading it she sent it to the police. The accused is at present serving a sentence at Paparua Prison. There are nineteen witnesses to be heard. John McMillan, aged twelve, a Christchurch schoolboy, said that he saw the accused at 1 p.m. on April 10. The accused told him that there was going to bo a hold-up or a bust-up, and said he was to meet five or six men at 7 o'clock. Other evidence concerned the identification of a rifle allegedly used by the accused and subsequently found in a chimney at Weedon s railway station. (Proceeding.)