CAUSED FIRE DAMAGE OF £18,425 TO “SPITE” A WOMAN

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 December 1950, Page 8

CAUSED FIRE DAMAGE OF £18,425 TO “SPITE” A WOMAN

AUCKLAND, Nov. 30 (PA).—Arrested 48 hours after damage totalling £18,425 had been caused by fire to two Onehunga factories and a boardinghouse on November 18, Solomon Wi Andrews, aged 25, a labourer, confessed that his reason for causing the fires was that he had been having arguments with a woman with whom he had been living and did it just to spite her. Andrews appeared in the Police Court today on three charges of arson, one of breaking and entering, three of theft from dwellings, and one of common theft. Andrews pleaded guilty to all charges and was commited by Mr. W. S. Spence, S.M., to the Supreme Court for sentence. The police told the magistrate that when interviewed Andrews said that after attending a picture show and being at an hotel until 6 o’clock he was “a little bit under the weather, but not drunk.” As he was passing Bond’s factory on his way home, he broke in through a window and took 12s. He piled up women’s clothing on the floor and under a rack, and set it alight. He then entered the Gnehunga Joinery Company’s factory. The door leading to the office was locked, so he decided to “burn the joint down.” He set some rubbish and boxes alight, grabbed a bike and rode to an hotel. He watched the two factories burning and a boardinghouse next to the joinery factory was also burning, but he had not meant to set that aiight He helped people to remove furniture and looked round to see what he could take for himself. Someone shouted, “Who’s there?” so he dropped what he was carrying and ran off. He decided to keep the bike and sell it.