INDECENT DOCUMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 11

INDECENT DOCUMENT.

FAILURE TO DESTROY. ORDER FOR CONFISCATION. (Special to Daili Times.). CHRISTCHURCH. December 22. Some weeks ago Edwin J. Fearon, a hairdresser, came before jhe court on a charge relating to what the police called an ‘‘indecent document, which was a cigarette case bearing a' picture of two cirls in the nude going down to bathe. Fearon kept the cigarette case in. his shop and to-day the police asked Mr H. P Lawry, S.M., in the Magistrate s Court, for an order for the destruction of the offendinc article. _ . ~ Fearon said that he was keeping the cigarette case for ‘further evidence. He had written to Mr J. M Combs, MJ?., askin': for his advice. . .. _ , , Senior Sergeant Martin; We only ask for an order for destruction. The Magistrate: You are not entitled to it unless the case was kept for the purpose of sale or exhibition Sergeant M'Namara said that he found the case on a pedestal in front of tha barber’s chair in the back of the shop. The picture was not exposed to view, and defendant had said that it was kept there for other reasons than sale. Defendant: When the sergeant came with the warrant I produced the case. He did not see where it came from. Sergeant MTSTamara: I saw you take it from the bench. To the magistrate: Ha told me that it was not for sale. In the box, defendant said that the offending article was behind a number of other articles. He had refused to sell it to several people who had asked to see the case which had caused his appearance before the court on a previous occasion. The Magistrate: An order is made for confiscation. mm