ART OF RECOGNITION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 193, 30 July 1932, Page 8

ART OF RECOGNITION

COUNSEL AND JUDGE. CELEBRATED CASE. Palmerston North. July 29. A defence of wrong identification raised by counsel for the defence in a case in which a man named Charles Fred Ammon was charged with causing bodily harm to a storekeeper named William Whyte by striking him on the head with a hammer, led to his Honour, Mr Justice Ostler, offering comment when addressing the jury. Counsel had quoted the celebrated case of Adolph Beck, who was identified by ten women as the man who had robbed them of jewellery in 1896. Beck served seven years’ gaol and in 1903 was arrested on a similar charge, and it was only then it was discovered that he had been the victim of wrong identification.

His Honour pointed out that in practically every case of crime the jury was asked to establish the identity of an accused solely on the evidence of the victim, for the simple reason that a criminal chose a time for his operations when nobody else was about. If the identification of one person was always to be doubted, crime would be committed with impunity. As regards the case of Adolph Bock, his Honour said that during his few years on the Bench he had heard of Adolph Beck at least fifty times. It was the stock argument of counsel bringing up a defence of wrong identification, and the jury must not be frightened of it. “So well do we learn to distinguish the faces of people we know that we can say with certainty that wo met so-and-so,’’ added his Honour. “The earliest lesson of childhood is to distinguish people by their features.” In the present case Ammon was recognised not by a momentary glance. Whyte had known him for at least sixteen months,.and his. assailant had been in the shop for a considerable time before the attack while Whyte was answering hi s questions and getting the blank cheque. The jury found Ammon guilty.