Gaol For Using Old House

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31080, 8 June 1966, Page 3

Gaol For Using Old House

GV.Z. Press Association» HAMILTON, June 7. A Queen’s Birthday week-end jaunt ended for 21 Auckland motorcyclists, including five girls, when they appeared before Mr Stewart Hardy, S.M., for entering an unoccupied house at Kiokio, near Otorohanga.

The 16 youths and two of the girls pleaded guilty to a charge of being found in a house without lawful excuse in circumstances that did not disclose the commission of an offence or the intention to commit one.

Two of the older defendants were sentenced to a month’s imprisonment and a period of probation. Seven were fined £lO each and the remaining nine, including the two girls, were remanded until next Monday for a probation report and sentence.

The other three girls appeared in the Children’s Court. They were remanded in the custody of the child welfare officer to appear next Monday. Some of the youths in Court had jackets bearing Hell’s Angels Club insignia. The police said many of the youths had removed from their jackets swastikas and other signs of club membership before they appeared in Court.

Sergeant A. Polkinghorne said the police went to an unoccupied railway house at Kiokio about 10 p.m. on Sunday as the result of a complaint. There they found the pang drinking liquor before a fire. None of them had any lawful excuse for being there. HEAVY RAIN Most of the gang had travelled on their motor-cycles from Auckland to New Plymouth on Friday night. They had spent Saturday night in stables at the New Plymouth racecourse.

David Lynn Roach, aged 21. a panelbeater, who was described by Sergeant Polkinghorne as the self-appointed

leader of the gang, said it was raining heavily and he and his companions were looking for a place to shelter when they came upon the house.

“It was a pretty knockedaround sort of a place and we could see there had been nobody there for a long time,’’ he said. Sentencing Roach to a month in prison, to be followed by two years probation. the Magistrate said: “This is your first appearance in Court, but you are old enough to know better.’’ RE-HEARING Raymond Gregory Carter, aged 20. unemployed, told the Court he would not have entered the house if he had realised it would lead to his appearance in Court. He was sent to prison for a month

and placed on probation for a year after his release. Phillip Ernest Schubert, aged 19, a spray-painter, was at first sentenced to a month’s imprisonment and 12 months' probation. After the Court had adjourned, however, he reappeared represented by Mr C. D. Arcus, who asked for a rehearing, which the Magistrate granted.

Mr Arcus said Schubert had tried to find accommodation in Otorohanga but found the cost of the only vacancy too high. “He and his companions noticed the vacant house with broken windows and entered it without any secrecy, leaving their bikes outside," he said. “There was no question of criminal intent.”

The Magistrate then remanded Schubert for a probation report and sentence.

Those who were fined were: Kenneth Hammond, aged 20, unemployed; Bruce William Sandford, aged 18, unemployed; Graeme John Murdoch, aged 19, student; Soren Hook, aged 19, apprentice plumber; Ronald Payne, aged 20, electrician; Richard Gray Fitzgerald, aged 21, diamond cutter; and Raymond John Barnes, aged 21, boilermaker.

Those remanded were: Mervyn John Goodall, aged 19, labourer; Kenneth lan Parkin, aged 19, driver; Geoffrey Nelson, aged 20. panelbeater; Alan Rene Beileski, aged 20, sheetmetal worker; Graham Stuart Barnes, aged 19. welder; Phillip George Clapham, aged 17, builder's

labourer. Marilyn Jeanne Hume, aged 17, factory hand: and Elizabeth Jean Martin, aged 18, machinist.