FINAL ADDRESSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1940, Page 13

FINAL ADDRESSES

CONSPIRACY TRIAL

CROWN AND DEFENCE

ELEMENTS OF CASE

Final addresses to the jury were given in the Supreme Court yesterday in the trial of Gordon Percy Aston and Harvey Maitland Chrystall on joint charges of conspiring to defraud the late Hartley Roy Sellers of'about £6765. fals^ pretences, theft, receiving, and attempted false pretences. At the conclusion of the addresses in the afternoon his Honour intimated that he would sum up this morning. The prosecution was conducted by the.Crown Prosecutor (Mr. W. H. Cunningham), with him Mr. W. R. Birks. Mr. W. E. Leicester, with him Mr. R: T, Peacock, appeared for Chrystall, and Mr. D. W. Russell, of Christchurch,1 for Aston. .Mr. Cunningham, continuing his address to.the jury, said that no evidence had been given of any payment having been received from the Admiralty, although one of the witnesses had said it had been stated to him that £20,000 or £25,000 had been paid into the Bank of England. The accused had frequently stated that The Hut was the headquarters for * c experiments. VEIL OF SECRECY.

The police evidence was that neither The Hut nor the launch disclosed any indication of .experiments having been carried out. There had been a veil of secrecy over the transactions that had been used to cloak the fact that it was entirely a fraudulent claim by the two accused. There were letters from the Admiralty and the Navy Office, Melbourne, disclaiming any knowledge of the invention. Aston had said that in both cases false replies had been made to the official inquiry from New Zealand, but what object could there have been in withholding the truth? Mr. Cunningham submitted that the jury could not help concluding that in all the transactions the money had been paid to the two accused for the purposes of the alleged invention. j Discussing the question of Chrystall's ! complicity or -therwise in the scheme, and the suggested belief Ije had in the truth of what he was saying, Mr. Cunningham, said the train of events started with Chrystall telling lies to Davis, in an effort to get £500, and four days after he was inter 'iewed by the police he testified to the transfer of The Hut property to one of Aston's j companies. He interviewed Davis, Nathan, made representations to Batt and Palliser, and saw the executive of the Racing Conference. He had an apparent belief, and he had to display that in order to ge+ the money. "PATHETIC FAITH." The Racing Conference allowed Sellers fourteen days in\ which to make the accounts square, and his cables to Australia between June 16 and July 3 were indicative of a pathetic faith in the ability of the accused to put matters right. The only reply he received was that if he could find security for the fare Chrystall would come back immediately. "We are not here to try the accused for causing Mr.- Sellers's death," said Mr. Cunningham, "but certainly the depth of his disappointment no doubt reflected in the act he took when he found there was no hope of getting anything from either of them." ■':\ Since October, 1937, there was ample evidence" that Chrystall .. and . Aston were very closely connected in the operations. Chrystall admitted his partnership in his statement to the police and said that he would take full responsibility. Aston had. attempted to throw all the responsibility on to Chrystall by saying that he was Chrystall's. agent. A very large portion of the moneys received, seemed .to have found its way into Aston's account. Chrystall, by reason of his education and his standing, would be the more likely to be taken at face value, and have what be said in the negotiations more readily believed. Aston certainly had the lion's share of the money, but both the accused were associated. CASE FOR ASTON. Mr. Russell opened his address to the jury by complimenting the jury on the close attention it had paid to 'a long and complex case, and the Crown Prosecutor on the very fair way in which he had made his opening address and- his s/umming-up. A very strong attempt had be,en made to throw the responsibility on to Aston, but counsel had been instructed by Aston, when the witnesses were being cross-examined last week, that he did not desire under any circumstances to secure an acquittal over the back of Chrystall, who had been associated with him in experiments for some time. Referring to the charge of attempting to obtain £500 from Davis by false pretences, Mr. Russell said there was no evidence at all to incriminate Aston, and there was no evidence that Aston had given Chrystall authority to disclose his name at the second interview. Counsel was going to submit to his Honour that that portion of the case be withdrawn from the jury. In the 1 charge relating to Nathan, except that Chrystall telegraphed to Aston during the proceedings, Aston's name was not mentioned, and i\e would ask for that charge also to be withdrawn from the jury. On the conspiracy charge, continued Mr. Russell, it was incumbent upon the Crown to prove an agreement be- ! tween the accused, and he would submit that the Crown had not succeeded. 1 Between October 1,. 1937, and July 3, 1 1939, there was nothing to show that | there had been an agreement to approach Sellers in the first instance. Sellers, on the other hand, had had dealings with Chrystall before 1937. "SOMETHING BIG." Mr. Russell said it was quite clear from the evidence of Palliser that in the first instance he had met Chrystall through Sellers and that Sellers had told him that he (Sellers) was in something big with Chrystall. Moreover, it was clear that certain facts had been put forward by Chrystall and Sellers, and that Palliser had been very favourably impressed by them. That was shown by his statement that he apparently had decided, to interest some of his friends in the proposition. Aston still did not appear in the transactions when Batt was brought into the matter, Mr. Russell continued, arid Palliser was quite prepared to recommend Batt to ; put his money into the proposition. Sellers himself had said that there was no risk, that the invention had already. been completed, and that the patent had been sold to the Admiralty. There was no doubt that misrepresentation by Sellers had induced Batt to go into the venture. The evidence showed that it was Sellers who inferred that he had seen experiments which led him to invest money. If Sellers were alive today, what would be his responsibility in connection with the money advanced by Batt? Referring, to the charge of false pretences in regard to money obtained by Batt, Mr. Russell suggested that neither

of the accused had directly received any money from him, but from Sellers. Aston had, made no representations whatever to Batt until May, 1938. Mr. Cunningham said that the count referred to charged the accused with having obtained money by means of a contract obtained by a certain false pretence.

Mr. Russell said it was unfortunate that, they did not have a list of the cheques paid out by Aston showing, where the money had gone to. Aston had told one of the witnesses, Cromb, that Chrystall was receiving £1100 a year. . ■