AUCKLAND GAOL BREAK

Grey River Argus, 5 February 1941, Page 10

AUCKLAND GAOL BREAK

JUDGE’S DIRECTION To Grand Jury' [Per Press Association] AUCKLAND, February 4. “There is one remarkable feature in the calendar. There are charges against three women. In my 14 years on the Bench, I have tried not more than half a dozen women,” said Mr. Justice Blair, in his charge to the grand jury, at the opening of the Supreme Court criminal session, to-day. “In these three cases, there is one most usual charge against women, that of robbery with assault, the allegation being she assaulted a man and robbed him. The other charges against two women were theft.” The JVdge said there were only 18 cases to go to the jury. Only one of the charges was of a very grave nature. That was included in the charges against a number of prisoners who escaped from Auckland gaol, and was concerned with the allegation of attempted murder of a warder.

His Honour reviewed the charges against five prisoners of breaking gaol by violence, and the charge against one of them, John Henrj 7 Silva, of attempted murder of a warder. If the warder had died, he said the Crown would have been justified in charging all of the men with murder, but the warder recovered, and that put the matter on a different legal footing. One of the prisoners—the man who hit him—was charged with attempted murder. “There is a nice neat legal point but a sound one involved,” said His Honour. “That is that in a charge of attempted murder there must be intent to kill, and Silva, in this case, intended only to render the man unconscious, to put him out but not to kill. It is therefore my considered opinion, and I take the responsibility of directing you, that your proper course is to find no bill against Silva cn the charge of attempted murder.”