ROBBERY IN CITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21247, 29 July 1932, Page 12

ROBBERY IN CITY

TWO MEN FOUND GUILTY ASSAULT IN VICTORIA STREET JURY CRITICISES BUSINESS FIRMS Criticism of business firms in allowing their employees to pass unguarded through tho streets, when carrying largo sums of money, was expressed by a jury in tho Supreme Court yesterday, when William Keogh, or Keough, aged 29, seaman, and Francis John Pcckham, aged 34, a Fijian ship's fireman, were charged before Mr. Justice Smith with robbing Richard Thomas Dias of £lO6 and with using personal violence. Both accused wero found guilty. The jury added a rider that tho practice which it criticised was likely to lead to such cases of robbery and assault. The trial opened on Wednesday, when witnesses for the prosecution established that tho robbery was committed in Victoria Street West on May 27, Mr. Dias having been assaulted and robbed on his way back to the premises of his employers, W. Parkinson and Company, Limited, after collecting tho money for tlip weekly wages. Several witnesses gave evidence yesterday that they had seen men acting in a suspicious manner in Victoria Street beforo the robbery. Thomas Henry Lansdale said thero was a coloured man concerned. Later ho had been ablo to identify lveogh as one of the threo men who carried out the robbery, but ho was unablo to identify Peckham as the coloured man. Constable Davis said bo saw tho accused Peckham in Victoria Street that morning. Evidence that ho had identified Keogh as ono of the men taking part in tlio assault was given by Natale Diracca, who said that ono of Keogh's companions was a dark man. He had seen Keogh, accompanied by tho dark man and another man, about 12 minutes before tho robbery, although ho did not see tho actual incident. . Detective Stevenson said he had interviewed Peckham that evening, but accused denied all knowledge of the robbery. A car, identified by witnesses as the ono in which tho men concerned in tho robbery had made their escape, was found abandoned at the bottom of Kelmarna Avenue, Ponsonby. In some RO rsc bushes near by ho had found a handkerchief and a brown paper bag with pencil marks on it, indicating that it had been used to contain florins and sixpenny pieces. Detective Packman said ho _ interviewed Keogh, who denied being in Victoria Street on the day of tho robbery. No largo sum of money had been found in the possession of the accused. Counsel for tho defence called no evidence, but submitted in his address to tho jury that there was a lack of positivo identification. . . Summing up, His Honor said the jury had to decide whether tho two accused had been identified beyond all reasonable doubt as tho men who committed tho offence. Both accused were found guilty and wero remanded for sentence.