SUPREME COURT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9008, 15 August 1907, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

• I CRIMINAL SESSIONS.

Thursday. August 15. (Befoie his Honor Mr Justice Chapman.) The criminal sessions of the Supreme Court were continued this morning before his Honor Mr "Justice Chapman. ! Mr Stringer, K.C., conducted the cases for tfhe Crown." HOTEL ROBBERY. Thomas Marsden Burnham and Elizabeth x_nnie Reid were indicted thai oil or about July 13. afc Akaroa, they Ihad stolen from the dwelUng-houße of F. F, Keppler the sum of £29, the property of John Gardiner. ... The prisoner. Reid was also charged that she had received £24 well knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. Reid, for whom Mr Donnelly apv peared, pleaded guilty to th© charge of receiving. •ivxr Stringer said he would accept the plea, and withdraw the major charge of tlieft against her. Ho would offer,' no evidence, and the jury could acquit her. * The jury, by his Honor's direction, accordingly acquitted the accused Reid on the cna'rg© of theft. In the. case again-t Burnham, John . Gardiner gave evidence that twentyfour, pound notes and hvo sovereigns had been taken from his drawer while he was staying at the Madeira Hotel, Akaroa. tie had been absent from the hotel for some days, and' on' his return he found that tne chest of drawers in which ho left the moftey had been removed to a new room which he was to occupy. The middle drawer was locked, but it was possible, he found out later, to get to it by taking out the top drawer. Mary iveppier, wife of the licensee, said that Bu.nham, who was a porterhad assisted to .remove the chest or drawers. To lighten it the two open drawers were. taken out, and accused remarked tliat- it was U6ele«s to lock one draw without the others. Next morning, accused gave her notice that he was leaving, although she was satisfied with him, and he seemed to be content with his employment. His position would have given him access to the bedrooms. The prisoner, Reid, who had been iv her employ, had left suddenly, and v on being intercepted aty Little River, tlie" money was found sewn in her fur. Elizabeth Annie Reid said she had been domestic at the Madeira Hot .1 On July 16 she was found in possession of a sum of money, in connection with which 6he had pleaded guilty to receiving. Burnham had given her the money, made up of twenty-four notes, asking her to mind it for him. He promised to give her £5 out of it when ne came on to Christchurch. She had previously told him that she intended to go -to' Christchurch. Although she knew that Gardiner had lest money, she did not think that it was his money, as accused had always represented himself to have money. To the accused: She had been in the colony a year. At present she was serving a sentence of one month's imprisonment for theft of goods from the isiame hotel. Mr Stringer' at this stage said that he had relied almost entirely on the evidence of the woman Reid. In view of what she had said, he felt that her evidence could not be relied on. He would therefore call no further evidence. His Honor said that, when the Crown had to depend on persons who were accoinplicet-., the evidence had to be scrutinised very closely. From the way in which she had given her evidence, saying that she did not think there wa.s anything wrong in taking the i money, "ne thought that Mr Stringer was right in calling no further evidence. The jury would therefore find the prisoner " not guilty." The jury having found accordingly, the accused was discharged. In the case of the prisoner, Reid. Mr Donnelly applied for leniency. He said that the prisoner's husband was a respectable man, who had undertaken to get his wife out of the colony as soon as she was free again. His Honor said that the prisonei really deserved a pretty severe sentence for the robbery of a guest in a hotel, and the fact that she had been stealing other things showed that she exhibited thievish inclinations. As her husband was a respectable man, he would make the sentence as short as he reasonably oould— four months' imprisonment, concurrent with her present sentence. ASSAULT. William Kirk was. charged that, on June 7, at Christchurch, he had assaulted Constable Jeremiah King, who was in the execution of his duty ; and that on the same date he had assaulted Constable King so as 'to cause him actual bodily harm. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. Constable King gave evidence that he arrested Kirk for drunkenness e&rly on tlie morning of June 7. On the way to the police station, and while at the Clock Tower, Kirk took a bottle of beer from his pojpket and wanted to drink it. Witness prevented him, and he resisted violently, using the bottle a 6 a weapon. He threw the prisoner, and the bottle hroke. Kirk had the .broken neck of the bottle, and struck him on the head and face, there being three wounds on his head and one on the cheek. Witness was taken to the Hospital, and the wounds were stitched. John Tr-udgeon gave, corroborative "evidence. Dr Wither, assistant house surgeon at the , Hospital, said that Constable King had threo wounds on his head and one deep wound on the cheek. They would very likely have been caused by l blows struck with the neck of a bottle, ■as described by the constable- The wounds were right on the top of the head. The accused said lie v.m drunk ou the morning of the .assault, and could give no evidence. Addressing the iury, he said, that the constable, who had not used any discretion, had injured himself accidentally by vol ling on thq bottle. His Honor, in summing up. Paid that the defence could not be admitted wit hI out setting aside the evidence or the j constable and. Trudgeon. The plea of drunkennesa raised tho degree of responsibility, but in a case of the present kind the law insisted that the mvii should be fully responsible, and diunkenness was no defence. The jury, after a short retirement, found the prisoner guilty. In reply to his Honor, Mr Stringer i said that the prisoner had v a long record of convictions for drunkenness, obscenity and other blackguardly cllenoes. He had also been convicted of theft and resisting the police, and had received eighteen months' imprisonment for breaking and entering at Timaru in 1902. His Honor said that the prison or seemed to have led c, very disreputable life, and, although most of the convictions were for offences not meriting severe punishment,- there wero fortyeight convictions against him. In the prisoner's own interest he had better be taken charge of than left to take charge of himself, arid he would be sent'oneed to two y par.' imprisonment, with hard labour. [Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, August 15. At the Supreme Court to-day, William . Jowett Hirst was found guilty of forging and uttering cheques for £3 15s and. £16 S. at Pahiatua. The jury feooinmended the accused to leniency, owing to his previous good character. Sentence was deferred till Friday. .Harold Pitt Johnson pleaded not guilty to stealing two boxes of tobacco from the Masterton Railway Sheds, where he was employed as storeman. Accused was found not guilty. \ Archibald M'Neill, sent forward to t.« Supreme Court for sentence as an

habitual offender, had a long record ot convictions, but he asked for a chance to reform. His Honor 6aid it was clear that the accused could not make good his promise to reform. Unless restrained ho would continue in his evil courses. _c declared the prisoner to be an habitual offender, and ordered him to be detained in a reformatory prison at the end of his current sentence .for false pretences. Prisoner protested against the sentence as unjust and disgraceful. DUNEDIN, 'August 15. In divorce, the Supreme Court, in the case William Scott v. Betsy Weir Scott, a decree was granted for the restitution of conjugal^ rights. A similar order was made in the case of John M'Culloch v. Margaret Brown M'Culloch.. Both suits, were undefended. , /