ALLEGED “PEEPING TOM.”

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18025, 21 May 1930, Page 8

ALLEGED “PEEPING TOM.”

MARRIED MAN CHARGED. FOUND BENEATH BUILDING. Accused virtually of being a “Peeping Tom,” Benjamin Holmes, a married man, aged about 35 years, was charged before Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., at the Hamilton Court this afternoon with being unlawfully on certain premises at Frankton, in circumstances that did not disclose the commission of or intention to commit any other offence. The of the house said that on the night in question she was in the kitchen with her father, when they heard a bang on the wall and a scratching. She lifted the blind, and saw accused looking in the window, with his face quite close to the glass. Immediately witness raised the blind accused ran away. Her father rushed out a'nd caught accused before he reached the gate. She knew defendant, and had occasionally spoken to him, as he was a neighbour. The father of last witness said he was in the kitchen with his daughter and heard a noise as if in the adjoining hedge. Subsequently he heard a noise at the window, and his daughter, pulling the blind aside, witness saw defendant’s face at the window’. Witness rushed out and searched the place, and eventually found Holmes lying full length beneath a hedge near the front gate. “Come Out, You Mongrel.” Witness seized the man, with the remark, “Come out, you mongrel.” The man gave no excuse for his presence, there. Witness did not know Holmes. In answer to Senior-Sergeant Sweeney, "witness said he saw no lorry about. Accused made no mention of taking a short cut to see his brother. A neighbour who was called to the scene xvhen the owner seized Holmes, said he (witness) asked Holmes what he was doing there. Holmes replied, “I am not here,” to which witness responded with the question, “Then where are you?” Holmes denied that he had been looking through the window. Witness said he thought defendant had had too much to drink Statement by Accused. Sergeant Moriarity said that in -a statement Holmes said he had had five drinks during the evening. He was merely crossing the section to intercept his brother, who lived in another road. Mr W. J. King said that the mere offence of trespass had been committed, and even this offence w r as probably due to the fact that the man had taken too much drink, and had gone on to the section merely for a natural purpose. Ris Worship decided to inspect the property, and adjourned the Court for this purpose. Prisoner was sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment.