CHILDREN’S COURT Sent To Borstal For Assaulting Constable

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 20

CHILDREN’S COURT Sent To Borstal For Assaulting Constable

Two 16-year-old youths were chased from Templeton to Chertsey at up to 90 miles an hour early last Saturday morning, and when stopped one of the youths attacked a constable with a knife, Sergeant J. M. Phelan told Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M., in the Children’s Court yesterday. Both youths admitted charges of unlawfully taking a car from Oxford Motors in Oxford terrace on July 1. One youth (Mr R. G. Blunt) denied a charge of assaulting Constable George Robert Orman with intent to injure, and the other youth (Mr J. R. Milligan) admitted the charge. The youth who denied the assault was remanded on ball to next Friday. The other youth was sentenced to Borstal training. Sergeant Phelan said that shortly after 1 a.m. police in a patrol car saw a car travelling at high speed near Templeton. Thinking it might be a converted car they gave chase, but considered it too dangerous to overtake as the other car was travelling at 85 to 90 miles an hour and weav-

ing from one side of the road to the other to prohibit the police from passing. The other car also braked violently several times in an effort to cause the police car to crash into the back of it. The police used a loud-hailer which only caused the youths to shout back abusive remarks. At Bankside the other car drifted into the shingle and swerved around a pedestrian walking on the road, said Sergeant Phelan. The pedestrian narrowly .missed injury or death, he said. At Chertsey the car ran out of petrol. Constable Orman and Detective-Constable J. P. Bermingham ordered the two youths out of the car. Sergeant Phelan said one youth made a long swoop from the ground and lunged at Constable Orman, who thought the youth was going to punch him. Constable Orman put up an arm and suffered a slight cut on his hand. Detective-Constable Bermingham got an overcoat and attempted to smother the youth’s knife, but he scooped up a handful of stones and dirt and threw it in the faces of the police, temporarily blinding them. He then made off across a ploughed field and the railway line. The guard of a goods train which had stopped said he could see someone lying in some hushes by the track. By this time a police dog had been brought and after another struggle the youth was taken into custody. Mr Milligan said his client had more than a mere liking for liquor and that he was a small boy trying to be a big boy. He had difficulty in growing up.