FAILED TO AGREE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 19, 22 July 1939, Page 7

FAILED TO AGREE

JURY'S LONG RETIREMENT

No agreement was reached by a jury which, in the Supreme Court yesterday, considered a charge against William George Collie, aged 23, a labourer,; of breaking and entering the house of! C. H. Dement in Home Street with j intent to commit theft. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr. W. H. Cunningham) applied for a new trial, the date of which will be considered next week. The Crown Prosecutor said that Collie was found in a front room of Mr. Dements house at 6.10 o'clock one night. A window which had been left closed was open and furniture had been disturbed. Collie's explanation to the police was that he v had come in through the front door, having been sent there by a man from whom he had inquired where he could rent a room. Mr. M. G. Neal, who conducted the defence, said that Collie, who was under the influence of liquor at the time, went to the house in search of board, having been directed there by a stranger. He did not enter by a window, but by the front door, after he had received no reply to knocking. Witnesses were called by both sides, and Collie repeated his explanation in evidence. The jury were out for more than six hours, and in that time they visited the house in Home Street. Mr. Justice Reed presided.