TWO BOYS COMMITTED FOR TRIAL ON A CHARGE OF MURDER

Wanganui Chronicle, 31 January 1947, Page 5

TWO BOYS COMMITTED FOR TRIAL ON A CHARGE OF MURDER

FARMER WHO DIED AS THE RESULT OF BULLET WOUND

(I*.A.) Taumarunui, Jan. 30 Two boys, one aged 15, the other 14, have been committed to the next sitting of the Supreme Court at Hamilton on a charge of murder. They are: James Frederick Dodds (15) and Cyril Pascoe (14). They are charged with the murder of Raymond Douglas Brinkman, aged 23, a farmer, at Tc Maire, on January 12. Drinkman died in the Taumarunui Hospital on January 18, as the result of a bullet wound in the stomach. The boys appeared in the Magistrate’s Court here to-day before Mr. A. Coleman, S.M., who, after hearing evidence called by the police, committed them for trial. Both pleaded not guilty. The case was conducted for the police by the Crown Prosecutor at Hamilton (Mr. J. F. Strang). Detective-Sergeant W. R. Cromwell represented the police. Mr. A. Moody (Auckland), with him Mr. M. McKenzie (Taumarunui), appeared for the accused.

Constable N. S, Ward, of Ohura, in evidence, said he located the accused at Ohura on the evening of January 11 and identified them as absconders from the Mount Albert Boys’ Home, Auckland. Witness took them to* the Taumarunui police station later that evening, where they were placed in a police cell. At 1 o’clock on the morning of January 12, witness escorted accused to the Taumarunui railway station for the purpose of conveying them to Hamilton. Witness put the boys in the general waiting room and at about 1.45 a.m., when the train was due, witness left his position near the door of the waiting room to get his overcoat from the luggage office. On witness’ return the boys were missing, having apparently escaped through a window. A search was made at once, but the boys were not found.

Martin Anderson and Albert Edward Pryor, railway employees, in evidence, said their bicycles were missing from the locomotive shed at 1.50 a.m. on the morning of January 12. Douglas James Steele, taxi proprietor, Auckland, stated in evidence that he and Thomas George Lake were camping on a hunting trip at Tehwakaroe on January 12 and left a car parked on the river road while they were testing a raft on the river. Between 10 and 11 o'clock in the morning a number of shots were fired across the river and Lake called out “stop shooting” and the firing ceased after a few more shots. Witness previously saw two cyclists going down the river road. When witness returned to the car he found the police there. An examination showed that a rifle and six boxes of .22 ammunition were missing from the car together with cigarettes, tobacco and £2O in single notes.

Thomas George Lake, taxi proprietor, Auckland, stated in evidence that a sheath knife and a cartridge belt belonging to him were missing from the car. COURT AT HOSPITAL

The clerk of the Children’s Court, William George Davys, stated that the deposition of Raymond Douglas Brinkman was taken in the Children’s Court at the Taumarunui Hospital before Justices, and was signed by Brinkman, who said ip it that he went out mustering on January 12. On returning at 12.30 p.m. Brinkman saw the doors and windows of tne farmhouse, which he left closed In the morning, were now open. He spotted a man, picked up a stick and questioned the intruder. Just then another man came from behind a shed with a rifle at his shoulder, and shot Brinkman In the stomach. Brinkman turned and ran towards the house and the intruder fired at him three or four times. The man on the left in the Children’s Court fired the shot. He was smaller than the other and darker. Cross-examined. Brinkman said he got only a glimpse of the man who fired. Mr. Moody objected to the admissability of this evidence. Gordon Nicholls, bank clerk, Taumarunui, told of the finding of Brinkman injured and in severe pain on the side of the road. Witness hailed a car driven by a farmer, Keith Cameron, and the deceased was then taken to Taumarunui Hospital. Senior-Sergeant F. Taylor, Taumarunui, told the Court that he went In the car later in the day with Detec-tive-Sergeant Cromwell and Constable R. C. Voullaire and overtook the two accused on the Ohura road. Dodd hesitated when told to drop his rifle, but did so. Detective-Sergeant Cromwell'then informed the boys that a man had been shot and he had reason to suspect them. Dodd admitted firing at the man. STATEMENTS READ IN COURT Detective-Sergeant William Henry Cromwell, a°er detailing the capture of the two buys, produced statements of each, made voluntarily after due warning that they would be used in evidence. Dodd related his escape from the Mount Albert Boys' Home on January 6, with Pascoe, their recapture at” Ohura and escape through a window at the Taumarunui railway station on January 12. They stole two bicycles and slept the night on the roadside, the statement continued. They took money, a rifle and .22 ammunitions from a car parked at Te Whakarae, on the roadside, next morning. They loaded a rifle with a full 15 rounds They came to a farmhouse and had a good look round. “We made up our minds to shoot anyone who disturbed us. I told Pascoe, and he said yes,” the statement read. They saw a man coming and hid behind a shed. The man weht inside

a shed and came out in a few minutes. The man saw Pascoe running up the hill and called out to him, Dodd confirmed. “I walked from behind the shed and opened fire with the gun at my hip,” the statement went on. “Mly first shot hit him in the stomach. When he was about 20 yards away I threw the rifle to my shoulder and fired a snap shot. When I saw I had not killed him with the first shot I fired again. I knew that he would bring the police and that a search party would come after v.s.” Dodds’ statement then told how they worked their way across country and back to the road. They made up their minds that if anyone slopped them, or came after them, they would “Let them have it,” the statement concluded. “The man 1 shot wan a fairly young man. I gave him no chance >.o get away—just shot him down." Pascoe's statement largely corrobooi a I cd Dodds’. Gregory Gerald Kelly, arms advisor

to tiie polite, gave technical evidence regarding a bullet taken fiom Brinkman's spine. Witness compared it with another taken from th e rifle which was stolen I> m the car. The bullets agreed on all major points, and some minor points. They could nut have been fired by any other firearm and the rifle could not have been fired accidentally, except by pressure on the trigger. Dr. Welby Fisher described Brinkman's injuries, which were very serious, the bullet passing through the pancreas and great vein near the spine. The magistrate committed both accused for trial at the next session of the Supreme Court at Hamilton. The accused both stated they intended to plead not guilty.