GUILT ADMITTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 11

GUILT ADMITTED

ROBBERY UNDER ARMS

SERVICE STATION THEFT

YOUTHS FOR SENTENCE

A service station attendant related in the Magistrate's Court today the ordeal he underwent when two men, armed with a revolver, robbed Sherwin and Morton's service station in Wakefield Street on the night of August 1. ' . . . John McDonald, a steward, aged 21, and Horace Timotny O'Connor, a labourer, aged 17. appeared before Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., charged with robbing Charles Williams, being armed with an offensive weat>on. After evidence had been heard both pleaded guilty and were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. The attendant, Charles Williams, was the first witness called by DetectiveSergeant P. Doyle, who prosecuted. Williams said that there was an extra large number of customers that night, and he was detained ( until after 11 o'clock, when he commenced to balance up the cash taken during the time he was on duty. Just as he was about to place the cash into the safe, he said, he heard a knock on the office door. He did,not answer immediately, but remained still in the office. Then he walked, over to the main door and looked through a glass panel, and saw a man outside who resembled a fellow-employee called Cleve Hyndman. Witness opened the door, a little and said: "Hello, Cleve," and then discovered that it was not Hyndman he was speaking to. but the accused O'Connor. HIT OVER HEAD. "Step inside unless you want, a bullet in you," were O'Connor's words, said witness, who added that O'Connor had a nickel-plated revolver in his right hand, and had the barrel pointed at witness's stomach. Witness stepped back towards the centre of the office, and as he did so he saw the other accused, McDonald. The two men came into the office, and witness walked back to the wall, one of them ordering him to,put his hands up. He saw O'Connor taking cash from the desk and till with his left hand, and placing it. in the left-hand pocket of his overcoat, while with the other hand he held the revolver, keeping witness covered. McDonald told him to face the wall, and as he did so he was hit over the head by McDonald with a heavy instrument. While in the act of falling he received a second blow. He slumped down to the floor and rolled over on to his aright side, and while he was in that position he was dealt, a further blow on the forehead as a result of which he became unconscious. When he came round he found that both men had disappeared* and he immediately got into touch with the police. He was taken to hospital by the ambulance, and received surgical treatment for the wound on his forehead, which necessitated the insertion of three stitches. MONEY MISSING. One of the partners in the firm gave evidence that' money totalling £23 5s lid was missing after the robbery. Statements made by the accused in which they admitted the offence were produced by Detective H. E. Campin, of Hastings. McDonald, who frankly confessed that he and O'Connor were responsible not only for the Wellington offence, but also for a similar offence at Hastings, said that the attendant tried to strike him, and he hit him with a waddy. O'Connor, in his statement, said that Williams started to fight. ■■'■■•■■•■..-. ;

When the accused carried out the offence in Hastings, said Detective Campin, the service station attendant resisted, and the youths abandoned the revolver and bludgeon iwhich they were using. These were the weapons referred to in their statements as being used in the Wellington offence. The revolver would not