GERALDINE THEFT CASE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19623, 18 October 1933, Page 8

GERALDINE THEFT CASE

ACCUSED FOUND GUILTY PRISON TERM IMPOSED In the Supreme Court yesterday Alfred Norman O’Meara and Wilkin Rainsdon Avery were found guilty on charges of breaking, entering and stealing money and goods valued at £SO from the premises of Morrison Brothers at Geraldine on March 8 and were each sentenced by his Honour Mr Justice Kennedy to one year's imprisonment with reformative treatment, the sentences to be cumulative with those of six years’ imprisonment they are at present serving for assault, robbery, receiving stolen goods, four charges of breaking, entering and theft and escaping from custody, of which they were convicted at Gisborne on May 30. The following were empanelled on the common jury:—Alfred Charles Martin (foreman), Roland Leonard Pearce, Gerald Leonard O'Donoghue, James Moyes, John Loder, Walter Carlton, Arthur George Howard. William Holmes, Frank Merlin Triggn. David Proctor Renton, Frederick Edward Burrell, Walter Howie Thompson. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr W. D. Campbell, appeared for the Crown. The accused were not represented by counsel, and entered pleas of not guilty. The evidence tendered was the same as that given in the Lower Court last week. Mr Campbell did not address the jury. Avery, addressing the jury, said that all the accused had to say was that they were not represented by counsel as their application had been refused. They had no idea how to conduct their case. They were serving a sentence of six years’ reformative treatment for crimes in the North Island, and if thev had committed the crime with whicn they were charged they would have pleaded guilty, because they knew in their own minds that they would not get any more sentence. O’Meara had nothing to say. Summing up, his Honour said that in a case where two persons acting m concert committed an offence, both were guilty of the offence. His Honour then reviewed the evidence and suggested to the jury that it linked up to connect the accused with the breaking, entering and theft at Geraldine. The jury retired at 12.37 and at 12.50 returned with a verdict of guilty in the case of each accused. “Very Bad Records.” “Your records are both very bad ones," said his Honour in pr.ssing sentence. “You are at present serving long terms of imprisonment for crimes. Had the present crime, of which the jury has found you guilty, been committed after the long sentence you received at Gisborne I should have considered whether it was not my duty to declare each of you an habitual criminal. The present crimes were committed before the crimes at Gisborne so I propose not to make a declaration that you are habitual criminals but to impose a sentence which will be cumulative and not concurrent with the ones you are now serving." Each prisoner was sentenced to one year's imprisonment with reformative treatment.