POISON HOAX

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 September 1945, Page 8

POISON HOAX

ORCHARDIST CONVICTED AUCKLAND, Sept. 17. An echo of the alleged theft of supposedly poisoned oranges from a Kerikeri orchard, and a broadcast by the police warning people against such oranges, was heard in the Kaikohe Court, when Geoffrey Walker, orchardist, of Kerikeri, was charged with supplying false information to the police, in that he had stated that a number of oranges injected with a poisonous substance had been stolen.' Walker,'who pleaded not guilty, was convicted and fined £5 by Mr. W. C. Harley, S.M. Detective-Sergeant J. .B. Finlay stated that Walker had informed the police that approximately <3O bushels of oranges had been stolen from his orchard and that included in this fruit were oranges that had been injected experimentally, with nicotine sulphate. Walker had stated that some of the fruit might have reached Auckland and been put on the market. Following police inquiries Walker had admitted that the story of the injections was wrong and added that he had said this to secure better police investigations into thefts that he had slated had taken place. Mr. P. Everett, Department of Agriculture orchard inspector, said that in company with police officers he had visited the orchard and closely examined the trees from which it was alleged fruit had been stolen, and he considered that it was unlikely that more than five bushels had been removed. , „ Walker conducted his own defence and called his wife to give evidence. Mrs. Walker said she had told her husband that she had carried out the injection about three weeks before the police were called in. In crossexamination she admitted that she had told her husband a lie and had not, in fact, injected the fruit. In a statement to the Court, Walker said that he had believed his statement to the police to be correct. Mr. Harley said he did not behove the wife’s evidence. Mrs. Walker interiected from the body of the Court that the magistrate was not a good judge of character. Suppression of his name was asked for by. Walker, but refused by the Magistrate.