Auckland Riot Trial

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6866, 24 May 1932, Page 7

Auckland Riot Trial

Fourteen Men in Dock PREMEDITATION ALLEGED CASE FOR THE CROWN Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Niglit.The trial of fourteen men, charged in connection with the riot in Queen street oil 14th April, was begun at a special session of the Supreme Court, before Mr. Justice Hcrdman, to-day. The jury panel numbered over 150, and filled the Court. The public were not allowed in the Courtroom until the jury was empanelled. Fourteen men were charged that, in company with James Henry Edwards and other persons unknown, they took part in & riot, and also that they took part in an unlawful assembly. Counsel for two of the accused applied for a separate trial. The Crown Prosecutor objected. His Honour said it was obvious that all must be tried together. The Crown's view was that all the men were parties to a common purpose, just as in a charge of conspiracy, and tiic application was refucca. Three counsel, appearing for tho accused, challenged sixteen jurors, and the Crown stood down thirteen, but the jury was chosen in less than half an hour. The accuseds’ names arc:—George Joseph Silver (England), aged 32; George Devereaux (Ireland), aged 38; Oswald Bourboau (Canada), aged 51; John Sharpe (Scotland), aged 36; Simeon Elari (Australia), aged 21; Leo Martinovich (New Zealand), aged 18; Harold Robertson (New Zealand), aged 19; John Hubert Edwards (England), aged 38; Clifford John Dudson (New Zealand), aged 31; James William R. A. Simpson (Scotland), aged 32; Mate Dragovich (Dalmatia), aged 33; John William McCorkindalo (New Zealand), aged 37; William John Budd (England), aged 35; Albert William Searles (England), aged 2G. Not for many years has such a number of men stood trial together in the Supreme Court on the same charge, and a special platform was built at the back of tho dock to bring them all to the same level. Broken wooden palings, a revolver, a catapult, wooden clubs, and pieces of iron gus piping were prominent exhibits in the Court. Unlawful Assembly Defined The Crown Prosecutor told the jury that it was possible for persons lawfully assembled to beeome an unlawful assembly. Once an assembly of three or more persons began to behave themselves in such manner as to cause a breach of the peace it had become an unlawful assembly in tne eyes of the law. A serious feature of this caso was that some of the ;eople assembled were anticipating trouble, and tho inference might properly be drawn that they wore desirous of precipitating it. Describing the riot, he said that tho unemployed procession v more or less marshalled by a man named James Edwards, and by the accused Silver and Devereaux. Stones were thrown through windows long before the main riot started. This showed that the outbreak was premeditated, for there were no stones in Queen street. No fewer than 340 battens had been wrenched from a fence after the riot started What had happened showed that many of tho men took advantage of an innocent procession by going to the Town Hall armed with missiles. Counsel then referred to a conversation which took place oin- the morning of that day between a constable and one of the accused named Bourbeau. He said Bourbcau warned the constable that there would be a riot if tho police allowed cars or other vehicles to go through the procession, and Bourbeau added: “You have my sympathy, old man, for if the fight really starts you will find the demonstrators as well armed as the police.' All the circumstances, said the Crown Prosecutor, pointed to the disturbance as being premeditated and prepared for. It may bo urged, he said, that some of the accused were overcome by excitement, but ail the excitement in the world cannot put stones in a man’s pockets. The hearing was continued this afternoon and to-night when the Crown called the first police witnesses, inched&ig Inspector Hollis, who detailed seeing the injuries received by the police and described the rioting outside the Town hall. Tho evidence was on tho lines of that in the Police Court, the police stating it was two hours before order was restored in the street. The hearing is expected to last a week.