SUPREME COURT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 46, 9 February 1929, Page 7

SUPREME COURT

WELLINGTON SESSIONS CASES DEALT WITH. Wellington Feb. 8. John Moore McKinker was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour, having pleaded guilty to a charge of breaking, entering and theft. Thomas Owens, a watersider, was Awarded £174, minus any payments made under the Workers’ Compensation Act, in bis claims for £260 against the Shaw, Savill and Albion Co., Ltd., for negligence in the manner of placing certain hatches on the Coptic, resulting in injury to plaintiff. In a case in which Robert Edward Cobb was charged with attempting to obtain £2OO from the “N.Z. Truth” by means of false pretences, the jury, after 45 minutes’ retirement, brought in a verdict of not guilty, and the prisoner was discharged Cliatles Weir was sentenced to six months for indecent assault. PALMERSTON" SESSIONS MCGILL'S CONFESSION THE SAFE FOUND EMPTY Palmerston N, Feb. 8. In the Supreme Court this afternoon when Janies Morton McGill, a labourer and canvasser, reappeared before Mr. Justice Smith for sentences on a charge of breaking and entering the premises of Mr Christie, Hairdresser and tobacconist, llangilikci street, with intent to commit a crime, McGill created a further surprise by handing in to Mr. Justice Smith a written confession when he appeared in court this afternoon for sentence.

Accused’s counsel, addressing bis Honour, said be would like the Court to know that the accused was a man of exceedingly temperate habits, with no tendency to drink, and as long as a man had not that habit, despite his past bad record, and if ho bad a capacity for earning a decent living, there always was a hope that he would return to a decent form of life. POSITION OF ACCUSED’S WIFE. “It has struck me/’ continued Mr Loughnan, “that in a certain stage of my arguments I presented an aspect of tlie case' involving his wife, i put it strongly to the jury that if it accepted the nightwatchman’s story, then the woman was in it as well as the man. 1 feel that it might be in your Honour’s mind Shut the implication of the accused’s wile adds to the gravity of the offence and makes an immeasurable iniquity. So far as I am concerned, that is an argument whih I framed, and hope that it will in no way be attributed to the prisoner. My intention was limited to the evidence. It might be that your Honour thinks that she was induced to come here and give, false evidence to save her husband. 1 think that 1 am entitled to say that nothing would have kept her out of the box, whicn she entered without any inducement and on her own insistence.” His Honour: What has happened to the sate? Mr. Ixiughnan: I would rather have the detective make a state ment concerning that. [ know it has been returned, but I am unaware of what its condition is. CONDITION OF THE SAFE. His Honour: Hie money has gone. Mr. Cooke (Crown Prosecutor) Tlio safe is in the police station, covered with rust and in a very dirty condition. The hinges have been sawn off and the contents removed. There is no possible prospect of securing any finger prints. We will produce tiie safe for your Honour’s inspection. His Honour-. There is no need, but froth the point of restitution? Mr. Cooke: Everything has gone -The production of the safe at the last minute is rather a two-edged weapon. If that position had been before the jury nt the trial it might have affected the verdict on the first count.

“This confession which you have handed in,” said His Honour in addressing the prisoner, “from a legal point of view amounts to evidence ol e-uilt on the first count. Therefore, there is no reason for von to comnlairi at the fairness of the jury in dealing with your case. Perhaps, from a wider point of view your confession and the restoration of the safe should bo in your favour, but from the point of view of restitution there is nothing for the wronged man at all. Confession before the trial would have been taken into consideration in fixing the sentence, but when it is made afterwards, at the last minute before sentence, it is very difficult to deal with a confession as a mitigating circumstance.” Accused was sentenced to reformative detention for a period not exceeding three years.