DARING STREET ROBBERY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 5, 5 December 1931, Page 12

DARING STREET ROBBERY.

SUM OF £944 STOLEN. One of the most daring of a long series of robberies in which sums or money have been stolen within sight of persons in the street was committed in Flinders Lane, Melbourne, .on the night of November 20. The sum of £944 was wrested from the manager of the Swanston Street branch of G. J. Coles and Coy., Ltd., and Plainclothes Constable Charles Derham, aged 29, was shot and critically wounded. The money was part of the takings for the day at the Swanston Street branch of the firm. According to custom the receipts of the branch were taken shortly before closing time on the Friday night to the head office of the National Bank of Australia, Limited, in Collins Street. They were in charge of Messrs Roy Fitzpatrick, the manager of the branch, and L. W. Kilpatrick and N. Bartley, who are employees of the firm. Constable Derham was acting as an escort. At 8.60 o’clock the men left the office of the manager of the branch, and walked to Flinders Street bv the fire escape, which gave access to Cathedral Arcade, a thoroughfare in a building which runs lrom Swanston Street to Flinders Lane. THREE REVOLVER SHOTS.

When the party walked into the arcade Mr Fitzpatrick nnd Mr Bartley were carrying between them a large leather bag which contained the money. Mr Kilpatrick and Constable Derham were directly behind them. A large number of cars was parked on each side of Flinders Lane. Mr Fitzpatrick had left his car standing on the southern side of Flinders Lane. As Mr Fitzpatrick and the others stepped on to the footpath in Flinders Lane three men walked from behind a car standing directly in front of the aroade. They rushed toward the four men, and. in lull view of a number of persons, three shots were fired in quick succession. Constable Derham staggered, raised his bands, and fell into the gutter, while two of the robbers snatched the bag of money from Mr Fitzpatrick and Mr Bartley, who at the same time were threatened with pistols. The men leaped into a car and drove into Elizabeth Street. So quickly had the incident occurred that the big crowd which had gathered at the sound of shooting did not realise that the car was carrying the men who had committed one of the most daring crimes in the history of Melbourne. FOURTEEN MEN ARRESTED. A man who saw Constable Derham fall lifted him into a taxi-cab and took him to the Melbourne Hospital, where it was found that he had been shot in the left side of the head, his skull being fractured. An operation was performed and a bullet was extracted. Although there were two hole? in the skin of the constable’s head, an X-ray examination revealed only one bullet. As a result of the wound his eyesight will be permanently impaired to some extent.

In a night of great police activity, 14 men were arrested in different suburbs following the robbery. Most of the men arrested were held on vagrancy or other minor charges, but one man was charged with having shot at Constable Derham with intent to murder him. This man was also charged, with two others, with robbery under arms. The accused were all remanded.