BLACKMAIL CHARGE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20632, 5 June 1935, Page 9

BLACKMAIL CHARGE.

Labourer Committed for Trial. especial to the Star.”) GREYMOUTH, June 4. A charge of blackmail was preferred against John Evla Wilson, a labourer, in the Magistrate’s Court at Hokitika to-day, it being alleged that he endeavoured to obtain a sum of £25 from Joseph Cox Taylor, a butcher. It was stated that accused and four other men visited an empty section one nig*t and saw Taylor there with a woman. Wilson thereafter extracted . various sums from Taylor with a threat that he would tell Taylor’s wife Accused finally demanded £25, Taylor putting him off for a few days, during which time he and his wife went to Christchurch. Wilson followed and saw his victim, who was staying in Sydenham. The latter declined to pay, so accused told his wife, stating that if the money were not paid he would tell the husband of the woman he saw with Taylor in the section. Mrs Taylor paid £ls and deferred payment of the remainder until her return to Hokitika, when she put the case in the hands of a solicitor. It was alleged that accused previously said that he would murder Taylor if a sum were not paid over. He told Mrs Taylor that he could shut the mouths of the men who were with him when they saw Taylor in the section. as they were involved in a burglary in Hokitika. Messrs A. E. Benjamin and W. E. Richards, Justices of the Peace, -who were on the Bench, committed accused to the Supreme Court at Greymouth.