MISTAKEN ARREST OF TAILOR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 77, 23 December 1937, Page 7

MISTAKEN ARREST OF TAILOR

-Press Association.)

Constable Now on Permanent Staff COMMISSIONER'S VIEWS

fBy Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, Last Night. A report published in Auckland stating that the Commissioner of Police, Mr. D. J. Cummings, had announced the result of the investigation by the police authorities in the case in which a wellknown Christchurch tailor, Mr. F. Hickinbotham, was mistakenly arrested by a probationary constable as a suspected burglar in his own shop at the end of September, was referred to by the Commissioner to-day. He said he had been incorrectly reported as saying "the constable had been upheld in his actions, which wer« honestly made in the course of his duty, and he had been placed on the permanent staff of the force. • • "That's all wrong," the Commissioner declared. "It is true that the , constable has been placed on the per manent staff. What I said was that there was no doubt the constable had acted honestly, but I did not say he had been upheld in his actions." No inquiry had been held, the Commissioner continued. Tho fullest investigation had been made into the matter, and up to the present Mr. Hiekinbotham would not give the police his version of the occurrence at all, though he had been asked to do so. He had, however, gone to the*Press. In view of the fact that Mr. Hickinbochani had consulted counsel as to whether he had a claim for a civil action, the aiatter reniained in abeyance.