ASSAULT AND ROBBERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 September 1934, Page 2

ASSAULT AND ROBBERY

TWO MEN PLEAD GUILTY. [per press association.] CHRISTCHURCH, September 4. Evidence regarding the assault on a taxi-driver at Kaiapoi on the evening of August 26, was heard at the Court this morning. Two men pleaded guilty to the assault, and also admitted breaking and entering a Rangiora store and converting a motor car. The accused were James Ernest Baggstrom, 21, and Henry Craw-ford, twenty-one. The men were described as labourers, with no fixed abode. Amongst the goods stolen from the shop were two .22 rifles, 600 rounds of ammunition, a number of watches and a quantity of cigarettes. George Langford Minifie, taxi propriel or, Kaiapoi, said he was called about nine o’clock on the Sunday evening to take the two accused to Waikuku. Witness, noticing the guns asked if they had been out shooting. They said they had been out for a bit of sport, but got nothing. When about 2} miles out. from Kaiapoi. a cord was thrown over his head, which was pulled back. Witness stopped the car. One of the men said that if he cried out he would knife him. Witness called out, and the men released their hold. He slipped out of the car and faced the men, with a rifle pointing at his head. One of the men said, “I’ll shoot you.” Witness said he then made a run for it, and was picked up by two men in a car. As the result of the assault he had a weal extending from his mouth to the left ear. also a weal under the chin. Accused were committed for sentence.