Two Men On Trial On Charge Of Attempting To Rob Post. Office

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 February 1948, Page 6

Two Men On Trial On Charge Of Attempting To Rob Post. Office

(P.A.) Wellington, Feb. 3. Pleading not guilty to a charge of breaking and entering the Post Office at Lower Hutt with intent to commit theft, Roy Vincent, 32, and Robert Spring, 21, labourer .appeared for trial to-day in the Supreme Court before the Chief Justice, Sir' Humphrey O’Leary. Outlining the Crown case, Mr. Cunningham said the police were ! called to the Lower Hutt Post Office at daybreak on December 7 and found that the strongroom door had been • packed with gelignite and fuses. • Everything appeared to be in readi-| ness for the fuse to be lighted- ; The two accused were detected walking slowly but out of breath, in ' nearby High Street. Spring possessed a pair of gloves i and a box of matches and Vincent ' had a small tyre lever in his pocket. Gelignite and detonators were found in a police search of Spring's house. Mr. Cunningham said that the police were in High Street within a minute or two of their having disturbed someone inside the Post OfOffice by their arrival and the jury would have to consider whether the ■ accused were, in fact, the men dis- ; turbed by the police. William Mervyn Boyd Anderson, ■ coffee stall proprietor in Andrews I Street, said that after the arrival of the police car he saw no one pass up Andrews Avenue going north. From the time he saw the police car pull up at the vestible door, till he saw the men getting into it in High Street, it would not be more than five minutes.

Detective-Sergeant F. O. Scott said that on the morning of December 7 he made a search of the home of the accused, Spring, at 67 ElizalZith Street, with acting-Detective Baker. They found & three-cornered file, a large stick of gelignite, and two pieces of celluloid- The celluloil of the type found was commonly used by criminals for a certain type of spring lock manipulation. Under an old sack in an outside shed, witness found a tin containing seven plugs of gelignite, a piece of blue coloured fuse about eight feet long, and a small tin containing about 24 detonators. Gelignite found in the tin was the same brand as that used at the Post Office. The fuse was the same colour, and the detonators appeared to be similar. Subsequent to the search, witness interviewed accused, Spring, who said he knew nothing of the gelignite and celluloid, and had not seen it before. Senior Detective W. McLennan gave evidence of finding gelignite in the lock of the strong room door at the post Office, and a quantity of gelignite, fuses, and tools on some newspaper in front of the strong room door.