CHARGED WITH THEFT

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1933, Page 5

CHARGED WITH THEFT

INCIDENTS AT WESTOWN DOORS AND WINDOW SASHES. TRIAL OF FREDERICK COWLING. Indicted with the theft of four doors and seven window sashes valued at £9 19s, the property of the State Advances superintendent, about May 26, 1932, Frederick John Cowling, Westown, stood his trial in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday. There ( was an alternative charge of knowingly receiving stolen articles. The hearing will be continued to-day. * Mr. R. H. Quilliam represented the Crown and Mr. A. A. Bennett appeared for the defence. The jury was empanelled as follows: Messrs. W. J. Hutchings (foreman). J Scott, D. J. Purdie, G. W. Chdderstone. C. E. Childerstone,. C. E. Jordan, L. G Harvey, L. Heatley, W. James, A. N Angus, C. S. Miller, W. Finn and I. G Parker. After , Mr. Quilliam had outlined the case for the Crown evidence of the lire at Parkes’ house in May, 1932, was given by Rheinhold Gredig, automobile service officer, who lived on the comer of Omata and Tukapa Roads. He said he was surprised to see no-one about the place He was on his way home when he saw the house ablaze. He gave the alarm. Cowling lived about half a mile from the scene of the fire. Frank W. G. Amoore, fire adjuster and building valuer, said the doors and windows produced were all factory made and were more than nine months old. There had been some staining and varnish on them but they had been re coated. The work was not that of a tradesman. To Mr. Bennett: He was the adjuster for Parkes’ fire. CARPENTER’S EVIDENCE. Cedric Thomas Gibson, a carpenter, Eliot Road, Westown, formerly foreman for Jones and Sandford, said he began to build the house for Mrs. Parkes in October, 1925. He produced the plan and described in detail the doors and windows of the house. He finished the place in 1926 and examined it again on April 9, 1932, in order to estimate the cost o: boarding up the windows to protect them from further damage. Nothing was missing but nearly all the locks were out of order.

In March, 1932, Cowling saw him and asked him to build a house in Vi alia th Road. He supplied a list of the material required and Cowling bought the material from one Williamson. Witness began work on March 7 and stopped on May 17 because the sub-contractors were behind with their work.

It was not until October, 1932, that he was called to the work again. The kitchen was fairly well filled with secondhand doors and sashes that were not there when he was there before. He immediately recognised the doors and windows as those he had previously fixed in Parkes’ house. When he returned in October he recognised five of the inside room doors, a wardrobe door and seven sashes as having come . from Parkes house.

The doors and sashes in the kitcnen were somewhat delapidated, in the same condition as when they were in Parkes house, but more weathered. Cowling decided he would not use the wardrobe door but would sell it in the town; Cowling suggested the ball catch and knoh should be removed for use in his house Witness told him to take them off himself if he wanted to. Later witness saw the door in McKay’s second-hand shop the locks having been removed and the holes plugged with wood. Witness went; on to give details of the doors and sashes found in Cowling’s house. He and a man named Lobb installed the sashes. They managed to hang all the doors without alteration, except one on which they had .to change the hinges round “GIVEN UNDER COMPULSION.” Gibson received a visit from Cowling on May 16, 1933. Cowling conveyed the impression that the doors and windows had been taken away. He accused wit-: ness of having told Sergeant McGregor. Witness admitted he had given information under compulsion. Cowling gave him to understand that he was the only witness who could incriminate h'm and the case could not proceed if Gibson said nothing. Cowling visited him again and spoke of “religious persecution." Later he produced a written statement by a relief worker “that Gibson was tel’ing people Cowling had taken stuff from Parkes’ house." Cowling produced a ■written statement the gist of which was an apology for “statements made about stuff, stolen from Parkes’ house.” He asked Gibson to sign it but he refused. Cowling made some vague statement “that we have not got long to live.” He finally said “Somebody’s got to pay foi all this and it will he you, Mr. Gibson, and tell Mrs. Gibson the same.” On the morning of June 21, 1C33, Ke found a human skull on the front porch, said Gibson. It had been freshly dug up, apparently, and a little sand v/as on it. .There was black sand on Cowling’s: place. To Mr. Bennett: He had inspected Parkes’ place on written instructions ■ from H. W. Whitcombe. This letter did not instruct him to inspect the 'nside fittings. Modifications were made to the original plan as Cowling’s job progressed. Cowling made several references to looking for second-hand doors etc. When witness returned to the house in 0.-tobei he found the kitchen fairly well filled with second-hand doors, sashes and sundry articles; they looked as though they had had hard usage and had been stacked outside for some time. Of the doors he found at Cowling’s place Oregon pine ones were hung in the bathroom, the two bedrooms, the sitting-room and the sleeping porch. The doors in Parkes, place were 6ft. Bin. by 2ft. 6m. except one that was 6ft. Bin. by 2fi. 2in. Mr. Bennet continued the cross-exam-ination at length. Margaret May Parkes, Korn, wnc h-.ed in the house in Omata Road till Atuil, 1931, gave evidence of tlm doors aid windows in the house. To Mr. Bennett: She did not identify the doors produced as thofre that were in her house, but they were similar. Isobel N. Parkes, a daughter of the previous witness, also gave evidence of the appearance of the doors' and windows. , Herbert W. Whitcombe, land salesman for L. A. Nolan and Co., said the house was abandoned to the State Advances Department by the Parkes and remained empty till it was burned in May, 1932. He visited it on April 6. 1932. He found It very delapidated, stones and pea-rifle bullets having broken the windows. He asked Gibson for an estimate of the cost of boarding up the windows. To the best of his belief all the doors and windows were there then. To His Honour: He had not asked Gibson to report on the condition of the house. • ; To Mr. Bennett: He could not swear positively that all the doors and windows were there. Karl Francis Glenner, a farmer residing on Omata Road close to where Parkes’ house was, said that before the house was burned the first time he applied to the State Advances Department to rent it. He visited Parkes’ house about a week before the fire. Some of tha windows were broken and stones lay

on the floor. As far as he could see there was nothing missing from the house. There was a wardrobe in the front room; he thought the door was in it. the last time he visited the house.

Harold Lobb, joiner, Walsh Road, said he had done some work on Cowling’s new house about the end of March, 1932. He made some window frames and' fitted some sashes. Cowling had said he purchased some of the frames from. a second-hand dealer and some. from the factory of witness’ brother. He had -also made two heart rimu doors for Cowling. David • Alexander McKay, a ' secondhand dealer, said that before Christmas Cowling brought him a door which he bought. A door produced in Court’was' that bought from Cowling, who said at the time that it was out of a wardrobe and was a misfit. To Mr. Bennett: Cowling brought the door in broad daylight, without secrecy. He might have meant to convey the idea that the door was unsuitable for his purposes. Cowling had previously bought some windows from witness, but not bungalow windows. It was possible but not probable that Cowling had purchased bungalow windows from the shop in the absence of witness. William H. Jones, master builder, gave evidence concerning some of the material sent from his firm’s workshop to the house built for Mrs. Parkes in 1925. The doors and window sashes corresponded with those in Court, and he would say that the sashes had been made in his firm’s factory. He believed one of the doors there had been made in his factory. A door had been made for Cowling about 18 months ago. He valued the sashes at 15s each, three of the doors at £1 6s each and one at £l.

To. Mr. Bennett; As long as his finji

had them in stock a number of doors similar to those produced would have been installed in different houses. He could not say definitely that the doors in Court were in Parkes’ house—they were the same pattern and size He said that one door produced did not come from his factory. He could not say whether a second door was from his factory, but it was a common type of factory door easily procurable. He would say that it would be rather difficult to recognise beyond doubt doors and windows by the methods used by Gibson. To Mr. Quilliam: He might recognise them if he had seen them recently—within six months..

. Similar evidence was given by George Burgess, foreman machinist employed by Jones and Sandford.