SUPREME COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24430, 16 October 1940, Page 4

SUPREME COURT

QUARTERLY SESSIONS SMALL CRIMINAL LIST The smallness of the criminal list was commented upon by Mr Justice Kennedy in his address to the grand jury at the opening of the quarterly sessions of the Supreme Court yesterday. “The list of charges is not a large one.” his Honor said, “and I think it may be said that in this centre, as elsewhere, there has been some diminution in serious crime. Although six persons are involved, the charges arise out of but two occurrences." The first case, the judge said, involved charges of breaking and entering and theft, and the second robbery with violence and alternative charges. In the first case the evidence would consist of an accumulation of circumstances, which, collectively, might bring moral conviction to the mind. Matches were found on the scene of the alleged crime, and it would be stated by the prosecution that the accused had the same make of matches. Blood spots had been found and evidence would be led that the accused had cuts on his hands, while expert evidence would be brought to prove that the shoes worn by the accused had made the print found on a piece of grass at the scene. His Honor did not think the jury would find any difficulty in concluding that there was a case to answer.

The second case, involving a senes of charges against five accused persons, arose out of an occurrence at Port Chalmers. His Honor exnlaineo the meaning of robbery with violence and said that if several persons committed an offence all were parties to it. though each had done only a task in connection with it. Those persons who held a man down while another robbed him were as guilty of the crime as the person who went though the victim’s pockets. The judge described the occurrence on the wharf at Port Chalmers which led up to the charges brought against the five accused. The grand iurv rehirned a true bill in each case.

The following grand jury was sworn in;—George Theodore Dennis (foreman) John Edward Wheeler. Harold Edward Barth, Charles Penman. Adam Wheeler Paterson, Stanley Lockhart Laing. Walter Palmer Birchall. Sydney Saddington Marett. Louis Henry Dear, Graeme Lang Lothian. Benjamin Christie Abernethy. Francis James McLean Andrew McKellar Cameron. Hector George Chapman, Harold Booth. William Thomas Grant, William James Dowsett. Hector McDonald Thomson. James Anderson Henderson, Walter John Kerr, William Turnbull, James Scoular, George Davidson.