CLERK STANDS TRIAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19994, 20 July 1939, Page 7

CLERK STANDS TRIAL

ALLEGED BURGLARY NAPIER INCIDENT (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. In the Supreme Court to-day the trial began of Geoffrey Spicer Kean, aged 22 years, a clerk who pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaking and entering the house of Miss K. M. Reston, at Napier with intent to commit a crime. Mr. Cunningham, for the Crown, said the real issue was whether the accused was one of three men alleged to have been concerned in breaking and entering. Two of them, Courtlander and Matterson had been ilready dealt with by the Supreme Court. Miss Reston was secretary of the Gaiety Theatre and had charge of the theatre keys and safe keys. On returning home at 9.50 o’clock on Easter Monday 'night, she opened the kitchen door and found the light would not go on, and as she was about to strike a match she was struck on the shoulders and knocked down, her head being bumped on the floor. When she started to scream loudly, neighbours came in and at once found Courtlander and Mattersbi\in the house. They would swear that Kean was the third man. He knew Miss Reston, having been to her house as a boy and having had meals there, the last one being about the New Year.