TIFF WITH WIFE

Evening Star, Issue 19408, 17 November 1926, Page 13

TIFF WITH WIFE

HUSBAND SEEKS PEACE IN EMPLOYER'S OFFICE JURY FINDS NO CRIHINAL INTENT [Special to the ' Star.’] CHRISTCHURCH, November 16. It took a jury just about two minutes to-day to decide that Robert James Foote bad no criminal design when he entered the office of his employer late one evening. Foote, according to his own story, was looking for peace and quietness. He had quarrelled with Ms wife, and left the house looking for a quiet place in which to sleep. What followed must have teemed like a nightmare to him. It ended in his appearance in the Supreme Court, before Mr Justice Stringer. Foote, who was not represented by counsel, pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaking and entering the offices of the St. Albans Brewery on September 29, with intent to commit a crime therein. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr A. T. Donnelly) said that at about 10.30 p.m. on September 29 Foote was found in the office of the brewery. He had entered the office apparently by prising open the door with a tyro lever. Nothing in the office had been disturbed. Accused, who was an employee of the brewery, gave an explanation that he had had a row with his wife, and had gone to the brewery intending to sleep in a motor lorry there. He took his boots off, and had been sitting with his back against the office door when the door swung open. He went in, and was in the office when the managing director of the brewery (Mr H. Stiles) arrived there. Mr Donnelly added that it was important to remember that nothing in the office was disturbedj and accused gave an explanation which, on the face of it, looked probable. Foote was a married man with seven children, and his story that he had had a tiff with his wife and had gone to the brewery t.q sleep in a lorry seemed probable, for' his boots were found in the lorry. Accused did not give evidence or address the jury, and after His Honor had summed up, remarking that the case did not look quite like a criminal endeavor to rob his employers, the jury returned a verdict of “not guilty 1 ’ without leaving the box.