ALLEGED KIDNAPPING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26904, 16 October 1948, Page 8

ALLEGED KIDNAPPING

Magistrate Dismisses Charges

POLICE ACTION COMMENDED

P.A. WELLINGTON, Oct. 15. Charges against two men of attempting to take away a nine-year-old girl from her parents were dismissed by the Magistrate, Mr A. A. McLachlan, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Wellington to-day. There was no motive, he said, but there was very strange conduct which the police could be commended for wanting to suppress, but the evidence did not constitute prima facie a case which would warrant the time and trouble which a trial would involve. It might support a charge of as§ault but there had been a technical assault only. The charges were of attempting to take away Deborah Janet Todd, aged nine, with intent to deprive her parent, Bryan Janies Todd, who had lawful custody of the child, of possession of her. The accused were Malcolm David Glasspole, a company manager, aged 31, and Aino Alexander Birch, a motor engineer, aged 29, and they were charged jointly. Both pleaded not guilty. Senior Detective E. Callaghan prosecuted, Mr W. J. Stacey represented Glasspole, and Mr A. J. West Walker represented Birch.

To show the intention of the alleged offence, said the Magistrate, evidence of much more determination would be needed. Even supposing Glasspole had returned from America with an idea and conceived and prepared a scheme, if he abandoned it of his own volition there was no attempt.-

The magistrate remanded the accused till Friday next on charges of being unlawfully in possession of firearms, and said the police could consider before then whether they would bring a charge of assault. Bail was allowed on the accuseds’ own recognisance at £25 each. Seeing that he was dismissing , the charge and not sending it on, •' said the magistrate, he felt at : liberty to remark that is was shocking that people in New Zealand or even in the British Empire could be troubled by even the possibility of such a terrible and ; stupid action. Girl’s Evidence Deborah Janet Todd said in evidence that she was going one afternoon to the tennis courts near her home in Lesley road when she heard a man call, to her from the footpath near a parked car. He asked: “Where does . Mrs Beasley live? ” There was another '• man sitting in the car at the driver’s ‘seat. The man said again: “Will you . have a look at this address? ” The child said: “ I went over to him and he put his head inside the -car twice. Then' he said: ‘ This is '•Wesley road,’ I did not make any reply. He showed me a book which I did not look at properly. He then put his hand over my mouth and tried to force me into the car. He hurt my jaw. My head was forced .'into the car on to the seat. I think the man in the driver’s seat then started the car, although I am not sure. I struggled with the man who pushed me into the car. I got away and started running up Bolton street -and then down again to my home. 7'-. The child said she and her schoolteacher, Miss Cody, went back into the street. The car and men had gone. ,Wiss Cody saw a magazine in the gut--ter. “I said it was the one the men shad used. The two men were wearing gloves and they had dark glasses,” added the girl. She could not definitely 'identify some glasses exhibited in court. She said the car the men had jwas green, with only one seat in front. She thought a window in the car had a tittle mark on it She. next saw the men at the police station. When Detective Callaghan asked the girl if she could recognise the men in court, Mr Stacey objected, submitting that, it was not the right way to establish identification. Identified in Court Detective Callaghan then asked her when she last saw the men and she replied that they were in court and pointed to the two accused in the dock. : Mr Stacey: Have daddy and mummy talked to you about it? Yes. mummy is in Christchurch. I read all the interesting parts about it and -•the names of the men in the paper Daddy pointed them out to me in court yesterday. “ That’s Glasspole over there,” said daddy. Mr Stacey: You like a bit of fun now and again? Yes. Mr Stacey: You didn’t mind a little bit of fun? You were not scared of these men? 1 didn’t like the look of them. . , ' Mr Stacey: Did one of them spank you with a magazine? No. Mr Stacey: You came back and ■laughed at them and made a face?— — I called out to them, “ I’ll get the police on you.”

“ Screaming and Choking ” ■ Ellen Mary Cody, temporary private tutor to Deborah Janet Todd, described the return of Deborah after the child s departure to play tennis. - “She was in a most terrible state, screaming and Poking, and gasped out: ‘Two men tried to kidnap ne.'” \ The magistrate ruled the evidence of what Deborah had said was admissible, but noted the objection by Mr Stacey. - Bryan James Todd, who said he, was i managing director of the Associated Petrol Company, was the next witness. When Detective Callaghan asked whether he was in a financially sound position, Mr Stacey objected “Sir,” he said, “that is an inference that he is wealthy.” , Mr McLachlan: Yes, you had better leave that out; it is common knowledge, anyway. 4 . The witness Todd stated that as he was walking home on an afternoon about a month ago his attention was drawn to a' green coupe car which was parked facing his house in Wesley road. He noticed two men standing near the car looking at the gate of his home. The two men were standing by the front mudguard looking towards his house. Witness walked past, and hurried back to have a look at'them. v . Evidence that he had told Glass- . pole that he believed he and Birch intended to get £12,000 out of the alleged intended offence was given „by Detective William Couling ;; Harper. Mr Stacey immediately . objected, saying there was no evidence of any demand for money. .The detective’s statement was highly improper. The Magistrate: “There should be . no reference to figures.” Automatics Discovered ' The witness said that under some papers in a suitcase in Glasspole’s room he found a .32 automatic, and beside it was a clip loaded with seven rounds of live ammunition. Also in the case was a box of 27 rounds of .32 ammunition. ( The accused then accompanied the police to the detective office, where he told the witness that he had brought the ammunition back from America. Shortly before 5 pjn., the witness saw Birch at his garage in Balance street. Birch said Glasspole could say what he liked he was not going to say he was up there. At the detective office. Glasspole said to witness: “Birch had nothing to do with it. It was my idea; J. thought the whole thing out” Birch, when interviewed, had said he had no revolver. A .45 revolver in a leather holster was later found behind an air compressor in Birch’s garage. Both defence counsel objected to all reference to firearms.