BAG-SNATCHING CASE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 13

BAG-SNATCHING CASE

ACCUSED ACQUITTED

A case of alleged bag-snatching occupied the attention of ; Mr; Justice, Reed and a.' jury in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon and again 'to-day. The accused was John Augustus, Jeanes ) who was indicted for theft from the person.

_ The circumstances of the case, as out-' lined'by prosecuting counsel and supported by evidence; were' to. the effect that about 10.30 a.nu on 21st November last Miss G. M. Evans was -walking along the.eastern: side of Victoria street. , She was carrying a leather bag containing a cheque1 fxstSSi and cash, amounting "to £20. The ...money was being taken to the National Bank, but when opposite the Empire Hotel, Miss Evans had the:bag;'snatched out of her hand. Miss Evan's was unable to see the features of the man who did it, but a passer-by saw the episode and chased the thief, alleged to be Jeanes, through the Empire Hotel and into Willis street, where, however, he lost sight of him. Another man'saw the two men.' running in Willis street, and a boysaw the front-one of the two jump on | a tram near the corner-of Willis and Manners streets.- The boy was able to describe the bag which the man was carrying. . The conductor of the Aro street tram, upon, which • the man jumped, had known the accused for some yjjars and remembered' him boarding tho tram. The a-cused, according to the conductor, was carrying -something and seemed somewhat exhausted when .he boarded the tram, and he kept looking back along Wiiliu street until tho tram had moved off and had got well-away. -. No evidence was called for the dewV 0"Bi !Cl.f g'geStill S to the jury that tho identification of the accused with the man seen runing away from the scene of the theft was inadequate upon which.to base a conviction. It was; not denied, ho said, that, tne accused L was the man who boarded the tram,:but a point for the jury to consider was whether.the man who boarded the tram was the man who' committed the theft. ,

.After a retirement of three hours, the jury, returned -/with, a vordict of not guilty, the foreman saying that as the evidence was somewhat contradictory they had decided to give: the prisoner the,benefit of the doubt