NEW TRIAL REFUSED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21295, 23 September 1932, Page 13

NEW TRIAL REFUSED

CONVICTION OF PRINTER COUNSELLING A CRIME A motion for leave to apply for a new trial, on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of evidence, was dismissed in a '-ment delivered yesterday bv Mr. Justice Herdman in the case of Phillip Solomons, printer, who was sentenced to two years' reformative detention for aiding the commission of a crime. Accused was found guilty of counselling and procuring other men to forge cheques and obtain money by false pretences. In the judgment,' His Honor stated that the case for the Crown rested in the main upon the evidence of two men, Morton and Gousmett, who were convicted criminals and who confessed to being accomplices of the accused man. These men swore that Solomons was associated with them in obtaining goods or money and in attempting to obtain property by means of false representations. The case for the Crown was not met by the accused in any way. The Crown evidence was not contradicted. The jurv was warned that it was unsafe to convict a person upon the uncorroborated evidence of accomplices, but that it was competent for the jury to convict notwithstanding such warning. In addition to the accomplices' evidence, other witnesses gave evidence concerning the cheque book used and the movements of Solomons prior to the cheque book "In cases of this kind," statedv His Honor " the corroboration need not be direct'evidence that the accused committed the crime; it is sufficient if it. is merely circumstantial evidence of his connection with the crime. I am of opinion that it cannot be successfully contended that the verdict of the jury was against the weight of evidence. Whether the witnesses were credible or otherwise was for the jury to decide." The jury had found accused guilty, as it was to do if it decided that the weight of the evidence was against him. The motion was therefore dismissed.