PERJURY CHARGE

Evening Star, Issue 24289, 2 September 1942, Page 4

PERJURY CHARGE

RAILWAY SERVANTS INDICTED A charge of perjury' arising out of evievidcnce given during the hearing before Mr 11. W. Bundle, S.M., in the Police Court on October 10, 1941, of a charge against James Jarrett Adam under a section of the Government Railways Act, was preferred this morning against Thomas Cosgrift, a railway porter, and Christopher Arthur Butler, a shunter. Mr H. J. Dixon, S.M., was on the bench, and Detectivesergeant T. Y. Hall prosecuted. Mr C. J. L. White, instructed by Mr T. O’Shea, appeared for both accused. Formal evidence was given by John Kennedy (clerk of the court) and 14111113111 James Harcey (court orderly), who stated that the case against Adam had been adjourned sine die, and subsequently withdrawn by permission of the court. George Tyrrell Baylee, barrister and solicitor, who had appeared for the defendant Adam when the latter was charged with having crossed a railway line when it was not clear, gave evidence regarding the proceedings on that occasion. The charge against Adam, said witness, arose out of a collision between a rake of trucks and his client’s motor car at a railway crossing at Green Island. Giving evidence on that occasion, Butler had said that after the train had cleared the points and was com. ing back near Church street he got on the leading wagon, using a lighted Tamp. There was no light fixed on the truck. Nobody had walked ahead. Cosgriff was on the truck beside him, and had a light.. Butler had said to Cosgriff before they came to the crossing: “We must watch this crossing.” Under cross-examination Butler had said that he had got off the truck on the driver’s side, and after getting off he had given the signal to stop. He had got down and found out what the damage was. When Mr Baylee had suggested that the witness (Butler) had never been in that truck the latter stated that he was. He also denied that he arrived on the scene breathless, as if he had been running. Regarding Cosgriff’s evidence on the same occasion, witness said that the general tenor was that he' (Cosgriff) was riding on the truck, that he had the lighted lamp in his hand, which was hanging over the front of the truck; that Butler was in the truck with him, and had a lighted lamp, and that owing to the position of the truck he could not say if Butler had made a signal to the driver with the lamp when the collision occurred. Kathleen Eliza McMullan, a typist in the employee of the previous witness, who had taken a shorthand note of the proceedings in the charge against Adam, gave formal evidence. Janies Jarrett Adam, in evidence, described how he had been struck by the truck when he was crossing the line in his car. There were definitely no lights on the. truck, and witness saw nobody in it. After witness had gob out of the car Butler had come along and asked if anyone had been hurt. Witness answered that there was not, and asked wherd was the light. Butler, who appeared to have been running, said he and the other shunter were in the end truck, meaning the truck which struck the motor car. Cosgriff had also said that he was in the last truck, but witness saw nobody in that truck, or he would have seen them if they had had lights. Witness had received compensation from the Railway Department for the damdge done to his car. (Proceeding.)