YOUTHS APPEAR ON BURGLARY CHARGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17915, 3 August 1926, Page 9

YOUTHS APPEAR ON BURGLARY CHARGE.

ONE SAYS GUILTY—TWO SAY NOT. Three youths alleged to have been associated in a burglary charge appeared at the Magistrate’s Court this morning before Mr H. A. Young. S.M. The accused were Clarence Higham Pepper, aged nineteen, Herbert Arthur Truscott Taylor, aged nineteen, and Leonard Travers Lanyon, aged nineteen. Mr Haslam appeared for Taylor and Mr E. W. White for Lanyon. They were charged that on July 24, at Woolston, they broke and entered the dwelling of Arthur M’Conachie and stole a watch valued at £6. Arthur Thomas M’Conachie, living at 10. Ashmole Street, Woolston, said he left home with his wife on the evening of July 24. The house was locked up with the exception of one window, which was closed, but not locked. On his way to Princes Street witness and his wife passed a billiard saloon and three young men were standing outside. One of them was the accused Pepper. When he returned home that night he found that the bathroom window was wide open. Later investigation showed that there were a number of footprints on a newly dug piece of ground near a neighbour’s fence.

Vera Agnes M’Conachie said that when she returned home in the evening she noticed that many articles had been disturbed and her mother's watch was missing. Eileen M’Conachie said that she visited her father-in-law’s house on the night of July 24 When she arrived at the house she saw a short boy standing outside the gate under an electric light. He had a hat pulled down over his eyes, but she could recognise him now as the accused Lanyon. There was a loud whistle when she approached the house. Taylor pleaded guity and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Lanyon and Pepper pleaded hot guilty and were committed to the Supreme Court for trial.