SUPREME COURT

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 May 1930, Page 7

SUPREME COURT

EX-CONSTABLE ACQUITTED

JURY'S SECOND THOUGHTS

[PER PBESS ASSOCIATION.]

CHRISTCHURCH, May 8.

In the case in which Joseph Reginald Wilsoii, an ex-constable, was charged with theft, evidence was given by representatives of the shopkeepers concerned that the goods in the possession of the police were identical with good which had been in their stocks, and which had been missed without having been sold. Gladvs Myrtle Johansson said she had been engaged to the accused. The marriage had been arranged for June 26 of last year, but the engagement was broken off in November, following a quarrel, during which witness threatened to go to the Superintendent of Police. The accused had brought a fur coat to her one night saying that it was a wedding present. Witness had bought the coat from Wilson for £l5. She had also got two frocks and a box of cutlery from accused.

Inspector Fitzpatrick, of Greymouth, said that on March 17, he saw the accused at Auckland, and showed him the coat and frocks. Wilson denied having given Miss Johansson the articles. Witness examined the accused’s place of residence and he discovered there a motor tyre lever sharpened. The jury returned, after one hour, announcing that they were unable to agree. His Honor informed them that he was unable to accept a disagreement until they had been in retirement for four hours.

Later, the jury returned with a verdict of not guilty on all counts.

PRISONERS SENTENCED. CHRISTCHURCH, May 9. Prisoners were sentenced to-day as follow:— Ronald Brown, Albert James, William Grennell and Raymond George Milton Caesar, all youths, employed as stable hands, for rape, five years’ imprisonment each. The Crown said the crime was the very worst in its class. Arthur Smith, 39, formerly hotelkeeper at Lyttelton, false pretences was ordered to come up for sentence when called on, on condition that he made full restitution. Gadeson Scott, selling liquor illegally at Ashburton, six months in £aol. It was his twelfth offence.

WELLINGTON DECISIONS.

WELLINGTON, May 8,

Two men, James Burman and Walter Fraser Sheriffs Harneiss, alias William Fraser, pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to robbery with violence, and. alternative charges, the party against whom the alleged offence took place being Arthur Brice, and. the amount concerned £2. An attempt was made to show that the whole thing was a drunken brawl. ■

After a retirement of thirty minutes the jury returned a'verdict of guilty on the second count, and not guilty on the first and third counts. The prisoners were remanded for sentence.

A verdict of guilty was returned by the jury in the case in which Patrick James Michael Heffron, aged 18, was charged with breaking and entering the shops of George and George, Newtown, and stealing goods to the value of £63/18/-. At the conclusion of the evidence in the trial of Mr and Mrs Walker for theft and receiving property, belonging to the Anchor Shipping Coy., the jury found Walker not guilty, and the prisoner was discharged. Mrs Walker was found guilty on the receiving charges, with a strong recommendation to mercy. She was fined £lOO, costs £24/8/-, in default six months’ imprisonment. Fourteen days were given in which to pay the fine.

AUCKLAND STORE ROBBERY.

AUCKLAND, May 8.

Two charges of abetting the commission of crimes at New Lynn on the evening of February 3 were preferred in the Supreme Court against Harold John Windsor. The offences in which he was alleged to have participated were the breaking and entering of a store by two men who had pleaded guilty of attempting to break into a shop by the same two men. The verdict was one of guilty with a strong recommendation to mercy. Sentence was deferred.

Joseph Sullivan, charged with breaking, entering and theft at a shop at Thames, was found not guilty.

MOTORISTS ACQUITTED PALMERSTON N„ May 7. In the Supreme Court to-day, after two and a-half hours’ retirement, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty in the case against Bache Wright Harvey, farmer, of Waverley, on a charge of negligent driving causing death. The charge was the sequel to a fatal accident, near Palmerston North on January IS. when Harvey’s car collided at an intersection with a. motorcycle ridden by two young men, both of whom were killed. Leonard, Douglas Anderson, arrainged on a similar charge, was also acquitted. The trial was the sequel to a. collision near Feilding on February 16, when two motor-cyclists collided at night, with a result that one was killed.