BOTH ACQUITTED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20541, 16 February 1935, Page 15

BOTH ACQUITTED.

Theft Charge Heard in Supreme Court. Charged with the theft of miscellaneous articles valued at £l2, Robert William Leeming and Alexander Hamilton William Day pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court yesterday. They were acquitted. Mr Donnelly prosecuted, and Mr Sergent appeared for both accused. The charge related to an alleged theft from a hut on a run at Whitecliffs, the missing articles, including blankets, whisky, wine, gramophone records, cutlery, and many miscellaneous articles, the property of Ernest Alfred Johnston. There was an alternative charge of receiving stolen property. Mr Donnelly said that there was evidence that the two accused had gone shooting in the vicinity of the hut. Later, the Coalgate constable had found articles in the possession of the accused and several of these had been identified. Leeming said he had brought the blankets over from the West Coast, and Day said he had won the tea-spoons at a haup-la show in Reefton. Ernest Alfred Johnston, farmer, said he owned a hut at Whitecliffs. He left the place secure. It was well furnished. At the end of November he found it had been broken into. About ten blankets had been removed. The blankets produced were similar to those he had lost. The same applied to a stack of gramophone. records. The greater part of a bottle of whisky in the hut had been consumed. The scissors produced were his without doubt. After calling evidence for the defence, Mr Sergent submitted to the jury that no real identification of the allegedly stolen goods had been established. The jury retired at 5.45 p.m., and returned at 6.45 p.m. with a verdict of not guilty in respect of both accused, who were thereupon discharged.