SUPREME COURT.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2289, 7 September 1870, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

CRIMINAL SESSION. This Day. (Before Mr Justice Chapman ) THE CLYDE GOLD ROBBERY CASE. Malcolm M Lennan was indicted for having at Clyde on the Ist ult., aided and abetted George Rennie in stealing from the lock-up at i lyde 200ozs of gold and L 1,700 in bank notes, the property of the corporation of the Bank of New Zealand. The jury was composed of William Bame'.t (foreman), James Burt, Edward Puling, John Hunter, John Brown, Thomas Allan, James Kirkland, William Selby, Ashworth Crawshaw, Lewis Michel, Neil Murray, Daniel Radel iffe.

Mr Barton, who .appeared for the prisoner, mentioned that a statement had got into the newspapers that the prisoner had endeavored to destroy himself while confined in the lockup at Clyde. b'ow he was instructed that that statement was entirely without foundation, and it might tend to the prisoner's prejudice, if not contradicted. His Honor observed that the jury would be directed to confine their attention solely to the evidence brought before them. It would take two hours to refute every statement made by the newspapers. Mr Barton had not intended to touch upon anything except this one circumstance, which might be very injurious indeed. The Crown Prosecutor stated the case as follows; The prisoner was charged with being an accessory before the fact to the robbery by one George Bennie on the Ist August last of a quantity of gold and treasure from the look-up at Clyde, whore it was in charge of the escort officers of the police department. It was necessary that the Jury should know what constituted an accessory before the fact. It was one, who being a .sent at the time the felony was committed, counselled, procui’ed, incited, or abetted another to commit that felony. That was the legal definition of an accessory, and upon the present indictment, the jury would therefore have two questions to determine—first, as to whether George Rennie did commit the felony j and second, whether the prisoner did co -inael, procure, and aid him

to commit the felony. There would be no difficulty whatever in convincing them that ■ the felony was committed by Rennie, who had pleaded guilty to two indictments charging him with the felony, and when brought before them to day, he would admit that he committed it at the time and in the manner charged. The only difficulty would be in connecting the prisoner with the felony, and the principal evidence towards that end would be the evidence of Rennie himself, he being the only man, so far as was at pres ’iit known, who was aware of the facts and circumstances of the case, and | therefore, the only witness available to prove them. The circumstances of the robbery were such, that they would come to the conclusion that Rennie could not by any possibility have committed it alone ; he must have had an accomplice in it, and that accomplice must have been some person connected with the p dice department at Clyde, and the object of the evidence which would bo adduced, would be that that accomplice must have been the prisoner As he had already said, the robbery was of escort treasure, which was always kept in the same place at Clyde—that was in otic of the cells of the building n.-cd as a lock-up. (The learned counsel here described the apartments and their fastenings, and the means that must have been adopted to gain access to the gold room, but as these particulars must be fresh in the memory of our readers, we will not repeat them.) The person who committed the robbery required to have a particular knowledge of the gold, and to be f .rnished with instruments capable of opening the boxes containing it. He would proceed to show how the prisoner was connected with the robbery, an 1 how the abate- , ments of Rennie connecting him with it were corroborated. He would toll them in the first instance that the prisoner and Rennie had been friends before they came to this Colony ; they had been wardens in the Montrose Lunatic Asylum for some time before coming out, and came out together in the E. P. Bonverie in the early part of the year 1869. Almost immediately on their arrival in Dunedin, prisoner obtained employment in the police force, and was for some time stationed in Dunedin. Rennie f >r a short time practised his trade of a shoemaker in Dunedin, but within a short time he received an appointment in the Wakatip hospital, where he remained until his wife died, when he removed to the Arrow, and there practised his business of shoemaker. _ In about the month of January last the prisoner was removed to Clyde, and it would seem that not long after his arrival there, the scheme for the perpetration of this robbery entered his head. Rennie stated that for some time prior to the month of May lie received a letter from the prisoner, in which he said that “if he (Rennie) went down to Clyde some dark night, he would give him as much gold as he could carry away ; ” and in another letter he told him he would go to the Arrow and see him about it. These letters we-e not forthcoming—they had been destroyed ; but there would be sufficient other evidence. They wou'd merely have Rennie’s statement for the fact of these letters ever having been in existence. Shortly after the receipt of those letters, on or about the 14th May, the prisoher actually did go to the Arrow/, and it was then and there that the robbery was concocted between them. Rennie slated that after his arrival prisoner asked him if he had thought over the preposition lie had made. Rennie said he did not quite understand it, and wanted the prisoner to explain it. Prisoner then told him that the escort went down from Queenstown every month ; that the ordinary escort went down every fortnight, but at the time the gold came down from Queenstown the escort was very much larger than at any other time. He a'so said he would show Rennie how to get the gold out, and told him he had a key for the outside door of the place. Ue also said that he had intended to take the gold by himself, but the undertaking was too much for one to attempt. It was at this time also that he tnid Rennie about the inner door of the pla ic. He told him he would have to come down wi'h a screw-driver t take off the screws of the fastenings of the inner door. The prisoner remain"d with Rennie on that occasion from Friday, the day on which he arrived, until the following Sunday, and then, accompanied by Rennie, he went back to Clyde. It seemed that Rennie had had too much drink on the rord, for when they got to the house of a man named E liott, about seven mi’es on the Arrow side of the road, ho could proceed no further, and .the prisoner had to see him to b d, leaving him there and going on himself to Clyde. Previous _ to going, he asked the landlord for writing materia’s, and left with him a letter, to be delivered to Rennie in the morning. Rennie got the note, and followed the prisoner on to Clyde, where the prisoner showed him the place where the gold was kept. He explained a number ot details, and then told him to get out of the place as quickly as he could, in case ho should be seen and recognised. There was one peculiar circumstance connected with their visits to Elliott’s to which he (the learned counsel) desired to call the jury’s attention. The prisoner upon that occasion denied all knowledge of Rennie ; he said ho was a perfect stranger t<i him ; he did not even know his name ; that he was a storekeeper at Cardrona, and very well off. There was a second meeting between the meu I that was on or about the sth June. Prisoner was then on bis way to Queenstown to take the place of Sergeant Fox, who had to attend the criminal session of the Supreme Court, and on his way up called upon Rennie and remained with him some few hours, when the details of the robbery was ta’ked over and discussed by them. It was at this interview, according to Rennie, that prisoner showed him the top of some screws, which he said were the points of the screws which fastened the plate on the inner-door of the lock-up. Ho said he had taken out these screws and had cut them, the object being that when Ronnie came down to commit the robbery the screws 'would draw olf more easily. The screws on the actual clopr of the lock-up were somewhat larger than those produced. This was important, because when the robbery was perpetrated, one of the screw was left in the door. The prisoner had cut it too much, so that it would not screw out, and when the plate came to be taken out afterwards, it was found cut in the way described by Rennie. Upon that occasion also when prisoner showed him the screws of the boxes, he explained to him the manner in which they should be removed I f om the boxes, and told him he had a wrench which would answer the purpose, and he would give it to him when' he came down. Another circumstance took place at the time, worthy of mention. In order to blind people, lie told Gantley, the lock-np keeper, bo had a gold mining claim at the

Arrow. (Tho learned counsel then detailed the first attempt at the robbery, tlie reason it was not then carried out, the subsequent attempt, and the part the prisoner took in both, but for the reasons before stated, we omit that portion of bis address.) The evidence of Rennie was tainted with this suspicion that he was an accomplice with the prisoner, and therefore doubt was thrown upon his statement, in consequence of his being connected with an infamous crime. He might tell them in the first instance that it was perfectly competent for them to convict the prisoner upon Rennie’s evidence unsupported, if they thought it sufficient His Honor: I shall feel it my duty to advise the jury that his evidence requires to be confirmed.

The Crown Prosecutor was going to inform the jury that in spite of that direction the law allowed them to convict upon the approver’s evidence, if they thought it sufficient ; yet they would no doubt look carefully for corroborative evidence. They hail heard a great deal of the robbery as the great Clyde robbery case; and although it was a large amount that was stolen, it did not require any more evidence to convict than in a matter of LlO. The same evidence would be legally sufficient in the one case as in the other, and the law made the punishment in the one tho same also as in the other. He would also ask them to recollect that the prisoner was a constable, and when they came to consider that, they would think it remarkable that with the knowledge he possessed as a constable of the modes used to detect crime, he should have loft any traces of the robbery at all. Yet he loft traces sufficiently strong to enable them to test the truth or falsity of Rennie’s story. He should shew the men had been great friends ; that after their arrival on tho goldfields, on every occasion on which they were together, the robbery was talked over. Inspector Dalgleish would he called, and he would tell them .how when the boxes were being fastened in the camp, prisoner was screwing them in suclp a loose way that he bad to be told twice to screw them tighter, which he then appeared* to do ; that there was every reason to believe that the wrench used had been stolon by him. He concluded by saying that from these and other pieces of corroborative evidence, the jury could have no difficulty in returning a verdict of guilty. The witnesses examined were :—J. W. Purdie clerk of tho Bank of New Zealand, Alexandra; H. C. Jones, agent of the same ; Inspector Dalgleish (who, in answer to Mr Barton, said—during the time he had known the prisoner he held a very fair opinion of him); W. Arthur, surveyor; and the informer Rennie.

/ The grand jury made the following prcsentmwit:—“ The grand jury, before separating, desire to express to your Honor their sense of the extreme carelessness manifested by the authorities in allowing so l irge an amount of gold, and valuable property, to be lodged for so long a period without any further security than that provided by two common locks, the innermost one of which could at any time have been removed with a common screw-driver in a few minutes. The carelessness being aggravated by the refusal of a safe when it was applied for by the inspector in charge ; and by the further fact, that not only (he general public, but what is worse, the members of the police force themselves were exposed to great and unnecessary temptation.” His Honor said he would forward the presentment to the Government.