STRUGGLE IN BEDROOM

Evening Star, Issue 25782, 3 May 1946, Page 8

STRUGGLE IN BEDROOM

ARREST OF ARMED THIEF SIXTEEN CHARGES ADMITTED fP.A.) NAPIER, May 2. .Pleading guilty this afternoon to 16 charges involving theft, breaking, entering and theft, and false pretences. Kenneth Hugh Bennetts was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. On summary charges of presenting a loaded' automatic pistol at a police officer, and being illegally in possession of a firearm, he was remanded to appear on May 20. Making the application, the police said it might be prejudicial to the accused if he were dealt with at this stake. Counsel for the accused said that at the instance of the Minister of Justice, Mr Mason, Bennetts was going to Wellington to-morrow for a medical examination. Describing how Bennetts was traced to the Central Hotel at Napier on March 31 through a letter card found in a Napier shop which had been burgled the night before, Detectivesergeant K. Mills said in evidence that when he and Detective Reid reached the accused’s room, Bennetts confronted them with an automatic pistol. They rushed the accused', who resisted desperately, but was eventually overpowered and disarmed. The pistol was found to have five shells in the magazine. The accused later made statements regarding the alleged thefts at Napier. Witness said under cross-ex-amination that the pistol was not cocked. Detective-sergeant Mills said that on April 19 Bennetts accompanied a police party to Waikanae Beach at Gisborne, where, after scraping in the sand, a film projector and a package containing cheques, bonds and other papers of a total value of £9,146 13s 8d were recovered. Subsequently Bennetts volunteered statements regarding a number of alleged thefts, including money and goods valued' at £213 from A. Tennent, of AVellington, money and goods valued at £lO6 from Oarrick Robertson, of Auckland, money and goods valued at £llß from Frederick Furker, of Auckland, money and goods valued at £123 from William Main, of Auckland. and money and goods valued at £B2 from Alfred Smith Gray, of Auckland.