BATCHELOR CASE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 945, 15 December 1933, Page 12

BATCHELOR CASE.

Committed for Trial on Five Charges. LENGTHY EVIDENCE. Charges alleging perjury, fabricating evidence, perverting the course of justice, attempting to dissuade a witness from giving evidence and making a statement on oath, which if given in Court would amount to perjury, were preferred against John Black Batchelor, solicitor’s agent, thirty-two years of age, of Idris Road, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., was on the b*nch. Mr A. T. Donnelly, Crown Prosecutor, conducted the police case, and Dr A. L. Haslam appeared for Batchelor. The charge of attempting to dissuade a witness from giving evidence was dismissed', the Magistrate holding that there was not enough evidence to put befor a jury. On all the other counts Batchelor, who pleaded not guilty, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Yesterday afternoon evidence was taken on the charges relating to November 28 and November 30, wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice, and attempting to dissuade Campbell by a bribe or other corrupt means from giving evidence in the perjury case. George Dixon, garage proprietor, 189. E-lereford Street, said Isobel Dixon was a niece of his wife. She married his step-son. The step-son was emploved at the Islington Freezing Works, and did not live with his wife. On November 28 Batchelor called at witness’s garage for repairs to his car. “ I asiked him the strength of the whole case,” said witness, “ and he said he would like to get a statement signed by Mrs Dixon, to clear the whole case up. Ip the evening Batchelor and Mrs Batchelor brought two documents, and I said I would see if I could get them signed. He said it would be better to get them signed before a Justice of the Peace. I had made arrangements with a man named Holmes to get in touch with Mrs Dixon. We picked her i.p. dropped Holmes, and went to a quiet street in Bromley.” Witness said that they went back to his house and he read the statements through when Mrs Dixon was going through them. All the accused had .said was that ‘‘sordid details were coming out.” The sordid details were that she had been living w r ith a man in Sydenham. In the car he had told her that Batchelor had said that it “would all come’ out about Sunnyside and Templeton. and St Anne’s.” Mr Donnelly: Why did you tell these things to the girl? To make her sign the document? “We want the truth!” insisted the Magistrate. Witness said he had told her what Batchelor said so that she would go home to his house and read the docu-! ments. j Mr Donnelly: He said it was to get her to sign. “Yes,” agreed the Magistrate. Would Bring Case to an End. Witness said that he had passed through so much on account of his family in the last few days that he did not “know where he was.” He thought that the signing of the statement would bring the case to an end and take all the worry from himself, his wife, and his son-in-law. Afterwards, he continued, the gir! had come back and said that she had signed a perjury, and had been bribed to do so with the £lO maintenance money. Witness told accused, who said that the statement signed before a J.P. was legal and one signed before the police was not legal. “ Batchelor said,” continued witness, “ that if the girl had to go into the witness-box she could cry, and then she would not be asked questions. Then she could not commit perjury.” Ethel Isobel Dixon again gave evidence. On November 28, she said, she received a visit from Dixon, sen., and discussed the statement in a car. They had dropped Iloknes and parked the car “ amongst the fields and trees.” He talked to her about the approaching case. “He threatened me,” said witness, “ that if I did not sign the paper he wanted, Mr Batchelor would bring up in Court about me and boy friends, and about St Anne’s Home and Sunnyside. He also said he would pay me £lO off my husband’s maintenance. He told me he would give me a further £ls on Tuesday. Continuing, witness said that she signed because she was frightened of Court proceedings. To the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, accused pleaded “ not guilty,” and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. A Charge Dismissed. The last count was the one of attempting to dissuade Campbell from giving evidence. James Henry Duncan Campbell gave evidence to the effect that Batchelor and another man had come to his home and endeavoured to approach him about the forthcoming case. His son-in-law gave evidence of the conversation. Dr Ilaslam submitted that on the last charge there was no case to meet. The Magistrate agreed that there was not sufficient evidence to send before a jury, and the charge was dismissed. Bail was allowed in the sum of £S OO, with one surety of £SOO, or two of £250 each, accused to report daily to the police.