MAN IN BLACK MASK.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17385, 23 April 1928, Page 13

MAN IN BLACK MASK.

PLUCKY GIRL CLERKS. IN P.O. HOLD-UP. “I am satisfied that you did intend to obtain by threats and by terrorising these girls what you hoped might be a considerable sum of money, and had it not been for their resource and presence of mind you would no doubt have obtained it.” Mr Justice Finlay made this statement at Leeds Assizes in sentencing John Brown Thompson, 29, a Huddersfield painter, to nine months’ hard labour for demanding money with menaces from a girl clerk at the Cloth Hall Posit Office, Huddersfield. Mr C. F. Burnand, prosecuting, said that at 5 p.m. on February 18 Miss Vera Waite was at the counter when she saw someone bending clown. Thompson was, in fact, wedging the door, and it was found that he had also fastened a black cloth over the door, which prevented anyone seeing inside. Miss Waite heard him say, ‘‘Hand it over,” and he covered her with what seemed to be a revolver, but .what was really a toy pistol. He dashed to the cash drawer and she screamed, and another clerk, Miss Parker, came from a room at 'the back of the post office. Apparently Thompson, who was wearing a black mask, lost his head. He threw his hat at Miss Waite, and Miss Parker tried to catch him by the collar. He escaped into the street, but a man caught him and he was handed over to the police. When searched a cobbler’s knife was found in his possession. He later made a statement in which he said. “I heard some men talking about the Durham murder and thought how easy it would be to hold up the post office. I went home, got the child’s pistol, and made a black cloth mask to make it m-orc realistic. It was in the spirit of bravado. I was no sooner in the office than I wished'that I was out again.”