MAN FACES FOUR CHARGES

Southland Times, Issue 25747, 10 August 1945, Page 3

MAN FACES FOUR CHARGES

“Not Responsible For Actions”

PLEA BY COUNSEL Cecil Alexander Wright, who ’ described himself as a journalist, appeared on remand in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on four charges. He pleaded not guilty to stealing a Bible, the property of Ann Wyber, proprietress of the Hotel Carrington, Gore, and to the theft of blankets and other articles, the property of the Union Steam Ship Company, and entered a plea of guilty to charges of obtaining 19/- in money and goods valued at 1/- from the Invercargill Licensing Trust by falsely representing that a cheque signed by himself was valid, and to having in his possession items ■of an Air Force uniform. The charge of stealing the Bible was dismissed. On the other charges the accused was remanded for sentence this afternoon pending inquiries about an examination by a psychiatrist. Mr R. C. Abernethy, S.M., was on the Bench. Senior Detective R. Thompson prosecuted and Major I. A. Arthur represented the accused. Cohstable W. H. A. Sharp said he had questioned the accused about his mode of living. The accused had given him permission to search his. property. The Bible was found among the accused’s belongings and when asked where he had got it the accused had said it was one he had had for years. He had then said it must have got mixed up with his other books. The accused had left the Hotel Carrington without paying his account. The accused said he had had a dispute with the proprietress about his account. She had told him she had been advised that he had’left the Hotel Stewart without paying his account and had said that if he could not pay his account there he could not pay at her hotel, and that he had better get out. That was why he had not paid his account. ACCUSED’S ALLEGATION

“The police were trying to frame me,” said the accused. “They knocked me about in the police station. I wrote to the Commissioner of Police about it.”

Senior Detective Thompson: Is it your habit to go about not paying accounts?—No. What about the Midland in Wellington?—l have paid that account. They held your luggage until you paid it?—That does not concern you, sir. To the Magistrate, the accused said he had discovered that the Bible was not his when it was found by the police. He had three different Bibles and must have gathered the other one accidentally. He must have had at least a dozen books in his suitcase. > The Magistrate said he would give the accused the benefit of a very small doubt.

Leslie Lewis Serbridge, manager of the Union Steam Ship Company at Invercargill, identified blankets and rugs as the property of his company. Such goods were never disposed of to the public, he said. The accused had told him he had bought the articles at a sale in Wellington, said Detective Sergeant J. Gibson. The accused in evidence said that the blankets had been sold to him in 1942 i by two Americans. Senior Detective Thompson: Why did you not tell Detective Sergeant Gibson that?—Because he would make me out a thundering liar. And you are not?—l am on oath. Then if you told Detective Sergeant Gibson that you bought the articles at a sale in Wellington in 1929 you were not telling the truth?—Apparently not. In dealing with the charge of false pretences, Senior Detective Thompson skid that the accused had gone to a bank in Gore and told a plausible story that he was travelling for the Oxford Advertising Company and that he wished to open a banking account. He had opened an acount for£l and had been told that the cheque book could not be operated on until more money was paid in. He later drew a cheque for £1 when it was obvious he had no money to meet it.

Referring to the charge of having Air Force clothing in his possession, Senior Detective Thompson said that the accused was at one time in the Air Force. The police were more concerned about getting the uniform returned to the proper place than anything else. “The accused is no stranger to the court,” Senior Detective Thompson added. AIR FORCE CLOTHING The circumstances under which the cheque had been passed were foolish to the extreme, said Major Arthur. The accused had opened an acocunt for £l, had drawn a cheque for 10/almost immediately and then paid an account with a cheque he could not meet. The accused had been a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force until 1942. Counsel suggested that the Court should not take too serious a view of the accused having Air Force clothing in his possession as he thought it would be found that a large number of discharged servicemen had at least one item of service dress in their possession.

“I regard this as a pathetic case,” counsel continued. During the last war the accused had served for four and a-half years in the British Army, which he joined at the age of 17. Counsel did not know whether his war service or his subsequent history were responsible for his actions. He had seen accused’s list and was very concerned about the case. There were long periods when the accused had conducted himself in an exemplary manner. Counsel said he had known the accused for a number of years and had acted for him concerning his (the accused) father’s estate in England. Out of this estate the accused had drawn a large sum of money. He was satisfied that the case was not one where the law should take its normal course. On returning to New Zealand counsel had found that the accused had gone through the whole of his money, which he dissipated in highly speculative business ventures. He was satisfied the accused was not responsible for his actions. Continuing, counsel said that he had seen from the list that the accused had been confined to a mental institution. He was satisfied that the case was one for expert psychiatric treatment. He was authorized by the accused to say that he was willing to enter an institution as a voluntary patient.