CHARGE AGAINST LAW CLERK

NZ Truth, Issue 1173, 24 May 1928, Page 8

CHARGE AGAINST LAW CLERK

(From "NZ Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) gra^\ U a n wie t r°^fKa < ?s hU apP^« i »n for bail on beha.f of ~~.-A.Mj worship refused to acc.pt bond on Martin's own recogn.sance. He might be only too pleased to forfeit his bond and go away to America, declared the bench. . .. "A cash deposit of £500 should be sufficient guarantee and there is no boat leaving for America m the meantime," counsel replied. Bail was subsequently allowed m sums of £250 self and £250 surety. Before leaving the dock, Martin, m an audible whisper, remmded counsel that he wished an application to be put forward for the suppression of h.s name. Counsel, however, refrained from making the request. No surety for bail having come forward by the time the prison-van was ready to move off to the gaol, Martin was transported w.th other prisoners m custody to Mt. Eden. Particular care was exercised by the police sergeant m charge of the prison-van to shield Martin from publicity. The van, as usual, was waiting by the curb m front of the side alleyway. Before the prisoners were brought out from the court cells, the police sergeant appeared,-bareheaded, at the rear of the building. His scrutiny of the alleyway did not, apparently, satisfy him that the "coast was clear," for immediately afterwards a constable emerged from the front of the courthouse and drove the van round the corner into Courthouse Lane, where it was pulled up close to the back entrance. Martin and his fellow-prisoners were then hustled through the courtroom—despite the fact that a maintenance case, m which Magistrate Hunt had ordered the clearing of the court, was m progress— and hurriedly smuggled into the van.

This unusual procedure on the part of the police is an extraordinary deviation from the ordinary routine of transporting prisoners from the court to the van.