Man Sent To Gaol For Two Weeks; Found By Night In City Yard

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 June 1949, Page 8

Man Sent To Gaol For Two Weeks; Found By Night In City Yard

“There is too much breaking and entering and theft, and the public has got to be protected—the Court does not believe that you were on the premises for the purpose you say you were,” said Mr. S. S. Preston, in the Magistrate’s Court, Wanganui, yesterday, when sentencing Walter Ernest Wilson, scrub-cutter, aged 49, to 14 days in the Wanganui prison. Accused had pleaded guilty to a charge of being found by night, without lawful excuse, but in circumstances that did not disclose the intention to commit any other offence, in the enclosed yard of Smith Bros. Senior-Sergeant F. Culloty told the Court that at 12.10 a.m. last Saturday Constable D. Ruscoe saw accused enter the back yard of Smith Bros.’ premises on the corner of Taupo Quay and Trafalgar Place. Accused was subsequently seen standing in the back doorway and when the constable shone a torch on him, ran toward the gate, but was overtaken. Accused told the constable that he had gone into the yard for a natural purpose. He had £1 Ils in small change in his possession, an electric torch and £7 in notes. “The Court is not prepared to believe that you were there for this purpose,” said the magistrate. “This is a serious matter.”