SERIES OF BURGLARIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23511, 27 May 1938, Page 4

SERIES OF BURGLARIES

MONEY AND JEWELLERY STOLEN ESCAPED PRISONER PLEADS GUILTY * COMMITTED TO SUPREME COURT The story of a series of burglaries involving the theft of £l3l 10s in money and jewellery valued at nearly £IOO, which were committed in Dunedin recently by a prisoner who escaped from Paparua Prison, was told in the City Police Court yesterday, when Francis Henry Gordon Guilford, aged 46, appeared before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., charged on four counts of breaking and entering and two of escaping from custody. Guilford, who escaped from Paparua on May 2, was apprehended at South Dunedin last week, but on Sunday afternoon last, he again managed to make his way out of the exercise yard at Dunedin Gaol. He enjoyed, however, only a short term of liberty, and was recaptured on the foreshore about an hour later by Sergeant Stark and Constable Drake.

The charges, which covered the period between May 9 and May IV, were breaking and entering the dwelling of Marion Vickers with intent to commit a crime; breaking and entering the dwelling of Emma Wilson and stealing the sum of £ll7 10s, a wallet and a pension certificate belonging to Wallace Alfred Annison; breaking and entering the dwelling of Alexander Ivan Walker Wood and stealing £l4 in money, and breaking and entering the home of Thomas Redmond Connolly and stealing jewellery valued at £99' 10s. The accused was further charged with having escaped from Paparua and Dunedin Prisons. On the application of Chief Detective Young, who prosecuted, the accused was remanded on the charge of escaping from Paparua, to appear at Christchurch on Tuesday next. AN UNWELCOME INTRUDER Marion Vickers, a married woman residing at Fitzroy street, South Dunedin, said that aboijt 2.45 p.m. on May 9 she heard a knock on the front door, which she did not answer. Later there was knocking on the back door, and the sound of footsteps going around the house. Witness then heard a back window being opened and footsteps in the living room. She looked into the room and saw the accused standing there, and on asking him what he was doing he replied that he had made a mistake, and was looking for his sister. Witness then showed him out by the front door. OLD-AGE PENSIONER’S LOSS Emma Wilson, a married woman residing in Kirkcaldy street, said that the complainant Annison boarded with her. On the afternoon fljl May 9 she went out, leaving the floors of the house locked, two bedroom windows being left partly open. On returning about 5.15 she could see that spme unauthorised person had been in the house, and that the wardrobe in Mr Annison’s room had been forced open,,? The complainant. Annison, an oldage pensioner, said that on May 9 he had £ll7 10 in notes, a pension certificate, and a wallet in a padlocked deed box, which was kept in a wardrobe. He went out in the afternoon, and when he returned he found that the wardrobe and the deed-box had been, .broken open and that the money and the wallet had been taken. Alma Gordina Peacock, a married woman residing next door to Mrs Wilson, gave evidence of having, on the afternoon of May 9, seen a man enter Mrs Wilson’s house through a window. She could not identify the accused as the man she saw. HOUSEKEEPING MONEY STOLEN Alexander Ivan Walker Wood •aid that on May 18, as a result of something he had been told, he went with Detective Marsh to his home in Ings avenue, where he found that a drawer in which his wife kept her housekeeping money, and which was always locked, had been broken open. A sum of £l4 was missing from a handbag in the drawer, and an inspection of the room revealed a tomahawk under the bed. Detective Marsh corroborated the evidence of the previous witness, and said that the accused had admitted breaking into Mr Wood’s house. DRAWER RANSACKED The complainant Connolly gave evidence that on May 24 he discovered that a locked drawer in a bedroom of his house in Ings avenue had been forced open and a quantity of valuable jewellery stolen. He could not say definitely when the theft took place. Detective Wells produced statements by the accused in which the latter admitted the offences outlined in the charges. MOTOR CAR PURCHASED The accused later took witness to a section in Bathgate street where he recovered the wallet and a padlock. He told witness that he had purchased a motor car for £4O and a wireless set for the car for £ 17, but he had sinfce agreed to the sale of these so that some restitution could be made. When arrested he had in his possession £9 in notes, which, he said, was portion of the money taken from Mr Wood’s house. The jewellery stolen from Mr Connolly’s house was recovered later. ESCAPE FROM GAOL Constable Todd, assistant gaoler at Dunedin, tendered evidence that the accused was received by him on May 19. Constable Wordsworth said that on the afternoon of May 22, the accused was in the prison yard along with other prisoners. At 2.50 p.m, witness was informed that the accused was missing, but although a search was instituted immediately, he could not be found. There was a long form leaning up against the southern wall of the exercise yard where the accused was confined. BRIEF PERIOD OF LIBERTY Sergeant Stark gave evidence of having, when he received word of the accused’s escape on Sunday afternoon, commenced a search of the foreshore. At 4 o’clock the accused was found sitting behind a sandbank at the rear of the Post and Telegraph Department’s yard, and was arrested by witness and Constable Drake.

•The accused pleaded guilty to all charges and was committed to the Supreme Court at Christchurch for sentence.