Brooks Committed For Trial Yesterday

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 11, 17 March 1950, Page 5

Brooks Committed For Trial Yesterday

POLICE PRODUCE DRAMATIC EVIDENCE IN ALL-DAY COURT HEARING ON MURDER CHARGE

Over twenty witnesses were called to swear that Brooks had been seen in the vicinity of the shooting on the morning it occurred, that he had been seen with a car of the same model and colour as Hodson’s at Te Teko that day, that a saw-off

shotgun with which it was alleged the killing was done was made from a gun Brooks owned, that he had been traced to Wellington and apprehended there. After his arrest, he is alleged to have made a statement admitting the whole thing, but claiming that the man he wanted to kill was William Charles Moses, fitter at the Edgecumbe Hydro-Electric substation where Brooks had worked.

At Mr Davison’s request, the 'Court noted his formal objection to the admission of Brook’s statement tc the Police as evidence.

Though a little pale, Brooks heard the whole case against him with little sign of pmotion and every appearance of calm interest. Asked to plead, he hesitated a moment, then said “Not guilty” clearly and firmly. Surprise For “Mr Farrabee” Detective Sergeant F. O. Scott, described the search for Brooks in Wellington on: February 17, the Friday after Hodsomwas filled. He said that after he and other Wellington Police officers had made inquiries at a number of hotels and boarding houses they called at the Y.M.C.A. hostel in Willis Street and amongst the possessions of a “Mr Farrabee” who, was sharing one of the rooms with another man were things that led them to suspect Farrabee might be Brooks. So they waited about an hour, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. when Brooks came into the room.

Asked if he were Mr Farrabee, he said “That is the name I was trying to get away under.” He was then told his visitors were police •officers and that they thought his name was Brooks. He admitted it, and added, “I’m glad it’s over.”

'Wanted To “Get Moses” When he asked the nature of the trouble, Detective-Sergeant Scott said Brooks told him, “I wanted to get Moses.” Later, at the Central Police Station Brooks made a long statement in which he is alleged to have admitted killing Hodson and taking his. car. It was against the admission of this statement as evidence that Mr Davison raised the objection, which was noted.

Detective-Sergeant Scott then read the statement, a document •covering six foolscap pages. Deserted Ship In it, Brooks allegedly said that he was a native of Derwen, Lancs., England, educated at the Royal Academy, Bristol, had passed the third draftsman’s examination and had been employed at a photograph printing and developing works before joining the T. S. Adventure branch of the R. N. V. R., to which he was attached for about eighteen months. After the Victory Parades, he went to sea and travelled considerably before coming to New .Zealand in his seventh ship, the Moraybank, which he deserted at New Plymouth about May, 1948. “Cushy Job” At Edgecumbe He went to Hamilton, and worked at various jobs there until June, 1949, when he came to the Edge•cumbe job. Everything there was “very cushy,” and the people quite nice. But, he said there was a fitter named Moses who kept picking at him and said he was “crawling.” Brooks said he got used to it, but could not understand the malice of Moses, who “thought he w?as just the job.” He called Brooks a Pommy until it got on his nerves. He had been planning to go away and join the Rhodesian Police Force but “In the end, Moses got so much on my and other people’s nerves and I thought I would kill him.” So he got a .303 rifle, a single barrelled and several hundred rounds of .303 ammunition “for practice.” Relented Until However, Brooks was further alleged to have stated that he kept saying to himself “Why should I throw away my whole existence for

After an all-day hearing of the Crown case against him (before Mr E. L. Walton, S.M. in the Magistrate’s Court at Whakatane yesterday) Chesley Lachlan Brooks, aged 20, English seaman and labourer, pleaded not guilty to the murder of the 59 year old bacteriologist Stanley Frederick Hodson at Onepu on February 13 last. He was committed to the Supreme Court, Auckland, for trial. Mr V. R. Meredith, Crown Prosecutor, presented the case, and Mr R. K. Davison,, also of Auckland, appeared for the accused.

this bloke?” and was thinking sei’iously along those lines until one day he dropped a wheelbarrow on a toe and injured it. On that occasion he claimed Moses made rude remarks and mocked him. “Then,” Brooks is alleged to have said, “I swore I would kill him, as he was not fit to live with decent people.”

After that he thought more and more about Moses and “began to make plans to go about the assassination.” At that time, Moses was away on holiday. “On the morning of February 13 (the day Moses was due back at work) I woke up dreaming about this Moses about 3 o’clock and packed my gear and off to Onepu,” the document continued.

“I thought I would have to get a car to save people’s lives during the gun fight to get away into the hills and wait for the Police, who would probably be after me flat out. • I even thought of living in the bush to save all the trouble.” Changed His Mind

He went to the road junction at Onepu, and stood there about three or four hours “thinking of Moses.” About 10 o’clock, he decided he would call it off and go away south and get another job, so thought of getting a lift to Te Teko to get on a bus. He saw a Vauxhaff, car approaching headed that way. He signalled the driver to stop. “He pulled up. I went to the door and instead of the original driver, I saw Moses. I opened the door quickly, drew the pis-

tol and fired. I was blinded by

the smoke and gunflash for a second; then the smoke cleared, and I saw an Iplderly gentleman sitting there. He had a hole in his chest.”

Brooks explained that the “pistol” referred to was a single barrelled shot gun he had exchanged for his double barrelled gun and cut down at work after Christmas.

At first he thought of taking the man in the car to but seeing that he was dead, pushed him into the passenger seat and backed the car about 100 yards along the side road and into the scrub, where he buried the body shallowly in sand a few yards to the rear of the car. Then he cleaned the bloodstains off the dashboard and windscreen and drove to Te Teko, where he bought 5 gallons of petrol, and headed for Rotorua. s

Car Abandoned He had left the sawn-off gun in scrub near where the shooting happened, and had also hidden a bandolier with 25 cartridges in it between there and where the body was buried. He still had his .303 rifle.

On the way to Rotorua, he gave another man a lift, and had lunch with him when they got there. Brooks left Rotorua about 1 p.m., and went past Taupo until in the vicinity of a bridge between Turangi and Rangipo he got out, took off the number plates and threw them in the river. Then he walked for an hour and a half towards bush on the hillside, finally camping at the edge of it. He stayed there until Wednesday morning' when, after abandoning the rifle and ammunition, life went back to the road and was .given a lift to Feilding by two brothers in a car.

During the trip he changed out -of his knee boots into sandals, and sold the boots to a Feilding saddler from whom he bought a suitcase before going on to Palmerston -North by bus to stay the night at an hotel. He took a bus to Wellington on Thursday morning and booked ,in at the Y.M.C.A. for a week as “Mr R. Farrabee.”

“I had never seen or heard of Hodson, and knew nothing about him,” the statement concluded.

Victim’s Disappearance Florence Maud Hodson, widow of the deceased, gave evidence that on February 13 her husband left home at Lake Rotoma to go to work at Edgecumbe taking his own car, which was the same one she had later seen at the police station Whakatane minus its plates. ,When he had not returned all night, she told

the police at Whakatane in the morning.

A farmer, Ronald Herbert King, said on his way from his own farm towards Otakiri along Grieve’s Road about 9.5 that day he had stopped at the main highway intersection and had seen accused standing at the corner.

Finding Of Body Henry Anderson, Edgecumbe carrier, said about 10 a.m. on February 13 on his way to the Onepu Springs road (which turns off Grieve’s Road) he saw Brooks crossing the latter road on foot near the main highway. Recognising*; him, witness waved and called “Hello Sinbad** (a nickname by which he knew the accused). Returning about a quarter of an hour later along Grieve’s Road he did not see the accused again, but noticed a car backed in. scrub off the right hand side of the road about 160 yards from the main highway. The car looked familiar, but he did not recognise it positively. When he heard next day that Hodson and his car were missing, it came to his mind that the car he had seen was Hodson’s. He remembered he had not seen it on the way back.

He communicated with the police and went with Constable Julian on the evening of February 14 to near where he had seen the car. In the scrub they found Hodson’s body under a heap of tins, sand and scrub. Pathologist’s Report

Dr Walter Gilmour, Auckland Pathologist, who inspected and .later carried out a post mortem on Hodbody, said when the body was uncovered it was fully clad and had* a gunshot wound* in the chest under the left lapel of the coat. The post mortem disclosed extensive heart injuries and some pellets of shof, indicating almost instantaneous death. The fact that the shot had not spread much suggested a weapon fired close to the victim’s chest and from the direction of the wound, from almost straight in front.

Maureen Eivers, clerk employed at Te Teko Motors, said on the morning of February 13 accused, 'well known to her by sight but not by name, came to the garage in a small bluey-grey car and bought 5 gallons of petrol with a motor cycle coupon and a two gallon one. David Donaldson, Te Teko, confirmed it. Both he and Miss Eivers thought the car they were shown by the police later was the same one. Swapped a Gun •

Donald Stewart Baty, farm labourer, Awakeri, said in early January this year he had swapped a 12 guage single barrelled Gecado shotgun for a double barrelled gun Brooks had. He identified a cutdown gun produced by the police as part of the one he used to own. He said he gave Brooks three boxes of cartridges similar to those produced in court.

On Good Terms William Charles Moses, leading fitter at' the Edgecumbe sub-station, said that during some seven months Brooks had had at various times a double barrelled and a single barrelled shotgun a .44 rifle and a .303 rfle. Witness re-commenced work after a fortnight’s leave on February 13 and had come home on February 10. About midday February 12 he exchanged greetings with Brooks, who had often been to his home.

He had no malice towards Brooks and had never singled him out for treatment not met-

ed out to others.

He knew of no reason for Brooks to feel resentment against him. They were, in fact, on good terms.

William Clive Fletcher, foreman fitter, Edgecumbe, said Brooks started work at the sub-station in June, 1949. Just before %e left Brooks had mentioned to him that he had thought of going to Rhodesia. Witness said he was leaving on January 14. Brooks asked who would be taking over when he left and when he found it would be Moses said, he would not work under him. Witness had never heard Moses say or seen him do anything to Brooks that should cause resentment. Weapon & Car Found

Detective Sergeant R. H. Waterson, Gisborne, said that on February -18 a sawn-off shotgun was found jammed into the ground. There was a smell of gun powder around the breech. A few yards away he found a cartridge belt containing 25 cartridges, and a live cartridge and a piece of rope about 6 feet long. All had been covered over with pine needles. Constable W. E. H. Auld, Takaanu, described how he found Hodson’s car-, a .303 rifle arid five packets of ammunition, a seaman’s cap

and two leather gauntlets near Turangi.

Arms Expert’s Evidence Senior Sergeant G. G. Kelly, arms and ballistics officer, Police Department, Wellington, said the sawn-off shotgun produced in eoutt had a slightly heavier than normal trigger pull and was so made that it could be discharged only by trigger pull.

From a comparison of markings on test shells with the spent shell found near the scene of the crime, he concluded they were all fired from the sawnoff shotgun. Pellets and wads found in Hodson’s body were also of the same type as the ammunition produced. From further tests he had formed the opinion that the fatal shot had been fired at a range of about one foot.

Berth Onslow Turner, saddler, Feilding, said accused came to his shop orf February 15 and bought a suitcase.