ALLEGED BREAKING AND ENTERING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13433, 21 July 1911, Page 6

ALLEGED BREAKING AND ENTERING.

YOUNG MAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. At the Magistrate’s Court this morning, before Mr. A. Crookc, S.M., George Sharpe, alias Edward Horn, pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaking and entering into a shop on Taupo Quay, on July 13, 1911. Mr. C. E. Mackay appeared for the accused. Caroline McLean, boarding-house keeper, stated that she rented a small shop on Taupo Quay for dressmaking purposes. Abont'B o’clock on the night of July 13, a boarder told her that there was a light in the shop; this was a most unusual thing. She wont over to the shop and opened the door, but found the shop in darkness. She struck a match, and saw the accused behind a curtain in the back room. On being asked what he was doing, he replied, “I’ve come here to sleep for the night. I’ve taken nothing.” Accused pleaded with witness to let him go; this she did. An examination of the shop showed that everything was turned upside down. The lock of the front door was broken open. Frederick Ingram, a boarder at Mrs. McLean’s establishment, gave corroborative evidence as to the finding of the accused in the back room of the shop. Edith Coles, a dressmaker, employed by Mrs. McLean, stated that she had locked up the shop when she finished work on the afternoon of July 13th, when everything was in order. On opening the shop next morning, she found the place in a disordered condition, everything being upside down Detective-Sergeant Siddells, stated that on Thursday, the 13th inst., at about 9.30 p.m., ho found the accused upstairs in Tuck’s Hotel. Witness charged him with breaking into Mrs. McLean’s shop. Accused said, “You’ve made a mistake; I’ve been in bed since 8 o’clock.” Ho took accused down to Mrs. McLean’s boarding-house, where he was shown to four different' persons, all of whom identified him as the man who had been found in the shop. Witness then locked him up. This closed the case for the prosecution.

Accused, who reserved his defence, was committed for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court to ho held at Wanganui on September 19th.