CHINAMEN ROBBED.

Wairarapa Age, 6 April 1933, Page 3

CHINAMEN ROBBED.

LABOURER PLEADS GUILTY TO TWELVE CHARGES. ONE CASE AT AKURA. WELLINGTON, April 5. The sequel to a savage attack by an armed robber on an elderly Chinaman in a fruiterer’s shop at 6 Moxhatn Avenue on the night of January 16 was heard at the Magistrate’s Court to-day when Jack Harry Payne, a labourer, aged 26, pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery with violence. Payne also pleaded guilty to twelve charges of breaking and entering and theft and to one charge of breaking and entering with intent to commit theft. The majority of the places entered by Payne belonged to Chinamen. Several of the charges related to offences committed in Wellington. Other related to. offences at Wanganui, Palmerston North, Akura (Masterton), Dannevirke and Hastings. As the accused had already made statements admitting the offences, and had' said that ho intended to plead guilty the Magistrate did not consider it necessary to hear formal evidence in the case of each breaking and entering charge. Ngan Kay Fun aged 60, who was attacked by Payne, was called to give his version of the affair. The Chinaman, in evidence, said that about IT p.m. on January 16 a man went into the shop. Ngan Kay Fun was sitting behind the counter, and when he got up he saw that the man

had an automatic pistol in his hand. When he tried to get from the back of the counter the man attacked him, hitting him on the head with the pistol. The man then took about £6 out of the till, and escaped from the shop. Two other Chinamen described how their premises had been broken into and robbed. Detective S. Brown, who investigated all the charges against the accused, said that Payne had admitted them all. When questioned about the attack on the Chinaman at Hataitai he also admitted that. He said that he had not pointed the gun at the Chinaman, and had later thrown it into the sea at Ngahauranga. The accused was quite frank as far as he himself was concerned, but said that he would not bring in three men with whom, he said,, he had been working in Wellington. The detective said that he had driven the accused round Wellington and the accused had pointed out the places he had broken into. The Magistrate (Mr. E. Page) committed the accused to the (Supreme Court for sentence.—(?.A.)