CITY POLICE COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22020, 1 August 1933, Page 4

CITY POLICE COURT

Monday, July 31. (Before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) DRUNKENNESS. Cyril Crisp Cottrell a second offender, was fined 20s, in default 48 hours' imprisonment. UNLIGHTED CYCLE. James Trower was fined 5s and costs for riding an unlighted bicycle. MAINTENANCE., William Lorimer Kerse, £7 14s in arrears on a maintenance order, was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, the warrant to be suspended provided he pays £4 on or before August 7 and £3 14s on or before August 28. THEFT OF TORCH. A. young woman, whose name was ordered to be suppressed in the meantime, was charged with the" theft of a torch at East Taieri.—Chief Detective Young applied for a remand until Friday to enable inquiries to be made.—The application was granted. COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. James Watson M'lvor, charged with the theft of a motor cycle, valued at £7O, the property of James Dodds Carson, was committed to the Supreme Court .for trial. A charge of wilful conversion was withdrawn. —James Dodds Carson said he left his motor cycle outside the Motor Club Rooms in Moray place. When he returned for it at 10.40 p.m. it had disappeared. On July 23, on his way to Middlemarch, he saw a motor cycle which he recognised as his own, travelling between Dunback and Macraes on the way to Palmerston. The rider was the accused, and when asked where he got the machine he said he got it from a man in Gore. Witness asked if he had bought it, and .the man said he had not. Witness said it was his cycle, and he later handed the man over to the police at Palmerston. Witness had no trace of the machine between July 7 and July 23, and when it was recovered it was very muddy and parts of it were bent. —Constable Patterson, of Palmerston, said the accused was brought to the police station on July 23. He was accused of stealing the motor cycle, and he made a statement admitting the theft. He said he had intended to return it the same night. —The accused pleaded not guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.

COMPLAINT FOR SEPARATION. Wesley Withers was proceeded against by his wife on a complaint for separation, maintenance, and guardianship orders.— l Mr C. J. L. White appeared for theplaini tiff and Mr W. I. Ruffell for the de--1 fendant—Complainant, in evidence, said the parties had been married for 13 years, and there were two children of the marriage. In 1931 the home was broken up because of the defendant's drinking and his relations with other women. The family wa e destitute in Christchurch, but the defendant refused to accept relief work. The children had been in a home, but as the defendant would not pay for them they had had to be taken away. Witness had been prepared to look after the children if she were paid £2 per week, and defendant had accepted _ this arrangement, paying regularly until last May. Since then witness had been receiving charitable aid in Dunedin. —Mr Ruffell submitted that the defendant had paid as well as he could, and that grounds for a separation did not exist. —The magistrate said he would not grant an order m the meantime, and would therefore adjourn the question of separation sine die.. The defendant had two children, however, and his mode of life for the past few years had. indicated that he had neither realised his obligations nor fulfilled them. It was true he had sent regular sums of money to complainant, but she was entitled to say that he had not been maintaining hi 6 family. An order for 25s per week was made in respect of the wife and two children, and complainant was given the custody of the children. The defendant was ordered to pay 10s 6d costs. REMANDED IN CUSTODY. Ernest Robert William . Pledger was charged with converting to his own use a motor cycle, the property, of D. D. O'Callaghan, and further with breaking and entering the premises of Maxwell M'Kenzie and stealing tobacco, cigarettes, and other goods, of a total value of £l2. Chief Detective Young, who prosecuted, said he proposed to deal first with the conversion charge, and on the major count the accused was remanded until Friday.— Mr O. G. Stevens appeared for the accused, who pleaded not guilty to converting the motor cycle to his own use. — David Doric O'Callaghan said he was the -owner of a motor cycle which he kept in a shed at the rear of Messrs Sherriff and Goodley's shops in Taieri road. He put the machine aVay at about 12.30 on Saturday afternoon, and as a result of what he was told he returned to the shed at 11.15 p.m. to find that the motor cycle had disappeared. He reported the disappearance to Constable Excell, and the two of them then set out in search of the machine, following its tyre marks for some distance. He knew the accused very well and went to his house at about 1 a.m. He knocked loudly two or three times, but although he heard the voices of a woman and a child, no one came to the door, and he finally went away. He and Constable Excell continued the search, and at about 2.30 a.m., while standing in the shadow of a veranda, they saw two men coming towards them. They apparently saw witness, because they made to turn down Taieri road. Witness and the constable moved out into the roadway and the two men separated and broke into a run. Constable Excell chased one up a right-of-way, and witness, who had recognised the accused, pursued him. The accused attempted to turn into a right-of-way and collided with witness, both ot them falling. The accused got up first and made off, but he left a bag of groceries behind him. The bag was handed to the police, and witness later went to the accused's house while the police arrested him. The speedometer ot the motor cycle which was later found in Mornington, showed that the machine had travelled about three miles. The accused had no authority to use or remove the motor cycle—To Mr Stevens, witness said he

had no personal knowledge concerning who took the machine. He had been told that the accused took the machine, and for that reason he was looking for the accused. He did not know Courtney Pledger. It was not a rough night, although it was raining slightly, and he had no doubt as to the identity ot the accused.—Charlie Gordon Mann, a grocer's assistant, said he was in the company of two young women outside Sherriff's shop at about 11.15 p.m. on the night in question. He saw the accused come out of a lane at the side of Goodley's shop and then go back up the lane. Witness ran home for a torch, as he thought that Goodley's shop might have been broken into, and when he returned to the front of Sherriff's shop, he saw two men come out of the lane ruling O Lailaghan's motor cycle. Witness did not recognise the men but he shouted to them to bring the motor cycle back. Their only answer wan to accelerate. Witness went up the right-of-way and found that the motor cycle was missing.—To Mr Stevens, witness said he did not think he was mistaken in recognising the accused when he first came out of the lane,»but he would not swear that it was impossible for him to have made a mistake. Witness told O'Callaghan that it looked like the accused on the motor cycle.—Thelma Mavis Brown said that she and her sister were approaching the shops at the rear ot which O'Callaghan kept his motor cycle, when they saw the accused walking in the direction of Taicri road. Ho had his hand over his face, and appeared to be intoxicated. They mentioned what they had seen to Mann, and later they saw the accused return up the right-of-way. A short time afterwards they saw a motor cycle issue from the lane. The accused was riding on the pillion.—To Mr Steven, witness said she could not have made a mistake with regard to the .