NEW TRIAL GRANTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25394, 27 November 1943, Page 6

NEW TRIAL GRANTED

BREAKING AND ENTERING CASE APPEAL COURT DECISION (P a ) WELLINGTON, Nov. 26. By special fixture the Court of Appeal to-day heard and determined an application tor a new trial made by Ernest Edwin Newton, who was convicted at Auckland on October 21 last on a charge of breaking and entering a service station on August 12 with intent to commit a crime The application was based on the grounds that insufficient evidence existed to justify the jury’s verdict of guilty. Th° facls were that the accused was seen at 9.30 p.m. coming, in company with another man, from the doorway of the service station, which had been brok'en into When accosted by a constable, both men ran away. The premises had been entered and tyres stolen, but the tyres were never traced. The accused explained that he ran away because he was frightened of the police owing to previous convictions. After hearing argument, the court adjourned and later delivered its decision. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, Mr Justice Blair, and Mr Justice Johnston found that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and that the jury had no evidence to connect the accused with the commission of the offence. Mr Justice Fair, who dissented, held that although the evidence was not strong, the jury was entitled to consider that the explanation given by the accused was untruthful and to find that he was on the premises with a guilty purpose. In the result the application for a new trial was granted.