COURT NEWS

Grey River Argus, 27 May 1938, Page 5

COURT NEWS

PRISON BREAKER Commits Many Thefts [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] DUNEDIN, May 26. Francis Henry Gordon Guilford, Who escaped from Dunedin gaol op Sunday, while on remand on a charge of escaping from Paparua Prison on May 3, was before the Police Court to-day on charges of prison breaking and numerous charges of breaking entering and theft, during his evasion of pursuit, to all of which he pleaded guilty. u , On the Paparua escape charge, he Was remanded to Christchurch, ano on the other was committed for sentence. Evidence disclosed that accused, m one house entered, secured £ll7 in eash, while in a solicitor’s; house he got £l4 in cash, and £99 worth of jewellery. Accused had spent £4O on a motor car, and £l7 on a wireless fitted to the car. Divorce Decree GREYMOUTH CASE AT CHRISTCHURCH. [Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH. May 26. Kathleen Fell, of Christchurch, sought a divorce from Ernest Russei) Fell, coalminer, of Greymouth, on ( the grounds of desertion. Fell defended the action, and also filed a crosspetition for divorce, also on the grounds of desertion. Fell was granted a decree nisi on his cross-petition, to be made absolute ir. three months. Fell was ordered to pay petitioner’s casts. “There are some sharp conflicts of evidence on a number cf important details, but I would rather accept the story of the respondent,” said Mr Justice Northcroft.

Mr D. J. Hewitt appeared for Mrs Fell and Mr K. W. Walton for Fell. Mrs Fell’s petition was dismissed. The petitioner set out that the parties were married on October 7, 1929, and that a male child was born in December the same year. She claimed that Fell had deserted her on March 10, 1930. In her evidence she said that before her marriage Fell had been willing to take over an illegitimate child she had had some years before by another man, if she would marry him. Once they were married they lived with her family until the child was born. The trouble between the parties was caused by the elder child. . , Mrs Fell said that the Child Welfare Officer had called at her mother’s house one day and had said that she had been sent by Fell to take the child away. At tea time that evening Fell denied having sent the woman over to the house. “He struck me three times on the face and neck, and I fired the teapot at him. It slightly burnt him,” she said. Fell later left the house with their child, and she found that he had taken away all the bedding, furniture and wedding presents with him. She said that she bought a mattress, pillows and blankets in his name and when he got the account he came to get the goods back, but she said that she was prepared to break them up before he could take them. There had been several attacks by him in the streets, she said, and she had gone to the police. z Mrs Fell said that she had brought separation and maintenance proceedings against him in the Magistrate o Court at Greymouth, but had failed. She had received no maintenance from him at all She was later in the hospital for 12 months threatened with tuberculosis, but although Fell visitea the hospital to see friends he did not see her. He ignored her letter asking him to meet her with a car when she was coming out of hospital and she saw him going off to a football match. Fell wanted her to go and live with him at his people’s place, but she would not do this, as she would have made the ninth person in the house, and would have had to do all the housework. Further, there were three or four big (jogs which lived in the house and which smelt vilely. They had their meals from the same plates as the rest of the family, and she thought them unhealthy. She had left with her mother, Mrs Mary Schroeder for Christchurch about the time of the last general elections. To Mr Walton: Mrs Fell said that the elder boy, Norman, used to break his toys, but would not break the furniture, as he was watched too well. Norman had later'been sent to an. institution in Nelson, as he was too difficult for witness to manage. She denied that she had thrown the teapot before Fell struck her. She had made no efforts to see their child. She had made no application for the custody of the child, either in the maintenance or divorce proceedings. She admitted that she had divorced a pre vious husband for bigamy and adultery in 1929.

Mrs Mary Schroeder said that Fell Was attached to the child Norman before the marriage. Fell was to pay the grocer’s bill. Mrs Alice Sheila Parker, a sister of the petitioner, said that she had found Fell and a man named Kenny taking the lock off the door and that they later took all the furniture away from their, two rooms. Fell admitted to her that he had received a letter from his wife asking him to meet her at the gates of the hospital. Fell, in evidence, said that he had the offer of a house which he was going to buy if Mrs Fell would live with him, but she would not leave her mother’s house. The child Norman on more than one occasion had put his child’s life in danger. Mrs Schroeder had told him io get out of the house after the altercation about the Child Welfare Officer, and he had left. He claimed that the teapot had been thrown first, and he had then slapped his wife three times. He had rented a house at Blaketown for a week and had moved all his furniture into it. His wife knew that he was going to move the furniture, but she would not join him in the house at Blaketown. MAORIS GAOLED. FOR ATTACKING TAXI-DRIVER. NAPIER, May 26. ‘‘This was a serious, cowardly assault in which three of you al lacked one man, and at least one of you used the boot,” said Judge Reed when

sentencing three Maoris in the Supreme Court, on a charge of assault, causing bodily harm, on a taxi-driver, on February 25 last. I Mason Tihema, 29, and Henry Burton, 26,' were sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. Somme Burton, 20, was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within one year. His Honour commented that the prisoners might easily have been involved in a murder charge. THE MOTOR MENACE. AUCKLAND, May 25. “Pedestrian crossings offer the only protection pedestrians get in the city streets, and it is my duty to protect the public against motoring offenders,” said Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., In the Magistrate’s Court. Two motorists were each fined £3 and ordered to pay costs for failing to give way to pedestrian crossings in Queen Street. “The rights of pedestrians using the crossing must be observed,” the Magistrate added. “Motorists who disregard the regulations and drive over the crossings, scattering pedestrians right and left are not to be tolerated.”