BANDITS CHARGED

Hokitika Guardian, 27 August 1931, Page 5

BANDITS CHARGED

ACCUSED PLEAD GUILTY. MORTON IDENTIFIED. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 25. In the armed robberies case. Maurice Guthrie, continuing his evidence, said that the revolver produced resembled the one fired, and also the clothipg produced resembled that wqrn by the two bandits. He identified Morton. Charles Francis MacDermott, produce agent, corroborated the•evidence of the previous witness, and said he had a cheque book taken from him. He could not recognise either of the accused. :

Mrs Zealandis Beatrice Voney, married woman, living at Miramar, detailed how she and her husband who were in the second car, were held up behind MaeDermott’s car. Just as she was getting out of her car, which was driven by her husband, there wa R a shot fired, and then the smaller of the oandits asked her to pass over her handbag, which she did. He then extracted £4 in notes, and left a little silver. After her husband had. been searched, the bandit s told them to drive on, which they did. William Alexander JPirie, manager of the Sunshine Service Station, Dav’s Bay, detailed the circumstances by which lie Was relieved Of £5 18s 6d by armed bandits on the evening of August 10th. Two men outside forced an entry into his office, the taller of the two pushing a gun into his stomach, and the smaller one asked where the money was. Both were armed, and hot' had masks. The smaller one carried a bright revolver like the one produced in Court, and the one which the taller one carried, was black with a long thin barrel like the air pistol produced. Detective A. B. Meiklejohn, stationed at New Plymouth, said that on August loth he went to the Terminus Hotel, at New Plymouth, where the two accused were booked as “Mr and Mrs Winstone.” The female accused said she had recently arrived from Sydney with .her husband. Witness went to the bedroom, where the male accused gave his name as “Jack Winstone,” aged 20, and he said that lie was a recent arrival from Sydney. With Sergeant McGregor, witness made a search of-the room, and in a suitcase under the bed, he found twenty-nine point 32 cartridges. He also found the revolver produced, fully loaded, under the pillow of the bed. He later found the air pistol with two boxe s of slugs in the wardrobe. ACCUSED’S STATEMENT. r ' v At the' pSliccf station, said witness, he interviewed Morton, as to his movements during the previous week. In his statement, Morton said that he luid arrived in New Zealand some time ago with Ids wife on the Aorangi but he bad nut been able to obtain any work. The two pistols were given them by a man in the country soon after he arrived in the Dominion. He told the man that .he wanted a revolver for pig hunting. He said th:t he was concerned in the two hold-ups with a man whose name he would’ not disclose. After the hold-ups he said the inasks and clothes were thrown into the sea. He '(Morton) had a revolver, and his mate who lay on the road, had a compressed air pistol. He described the Miramar hold-up, also the tiring-off of the shot, after which he said the motorist had “better hop out, as if there was any more trouble from him, he would get c-ne a bit higher.” After the robbery, Morton st tcd, they changed their clothes, and in Miramar they were met by a constable, who asked them whether they had seep any “harem scarems” about, and that they “hac?. better look out!” After the Day’s Bay affair, he said, he came into town by bus, and slept out, and the next- night his wife and himself stayed at the New Zealander Hotel. Later they went to Wanganui, and to New Plymouth. Detective Meiklejohn, continuing, said that, after making the foregoing statement, Morton told the female accused that he had admitted two ho’dups in Wellington, but she “was not in.” THE WOMAN’S STATEMENT. Detective Meiklejohn then read a statement that he had taken from Florence Cooper, the female accused, on August Bth. The accused said that she was staying at the Pier Hotel in Wellington with her husband, and they had no money. Therefore she suggested 'that they should go out and stick up so-me cars. They bought some old clothes, and in the Miramar instance, they changed into them in an old bach. She lay down on the road, and when the car came along she presented the air pistol, while her husband held up the men with the revolver. “The car driver had. a torch, and he flashed it in my face,” the statement continued, “and said ‘lt is not- the real one,’ to which I replied: ‘You will soon know i whether it is a real one. I stuck up the other car. which came up, and told the man and woman to get out. Mv husband left the other two men, and came over to me, and then took the woman’s purse. A man from the first car came and flashed a torch in his face, and.then my husband fired a shot. The woman said: ‘Be a sport, as you have got the money.’ ” After they had changed their clothes, and were walking in Miramar, the accused further stated they met a man whom they knew Was a detective, who asked them if they had seen any men. She said: “He told u s that we had better look out, as there were two desperate characters about.” They then came hack

to town and had supper at a cafe about o'clock. • Before the Day’s Bay hold-up, they climbed up the hill behind, and were up there all the afternoon. They had planned to- hold up a bus after dark, but when they saw the service station, they decided right away to rob it, instead of holding up a bus. They went on to the hill and changed, and then went down . to the service station after putting masks over their faces. They, forced their way in, after telling the proprietor that there was a man outside, which was not true, and, taking the contents of the till, they walked! back towards Wellington, and caught a bus at Petone. “I wish to say that lam as much to blame as my husband in the two hold-ups,” the accused concluded in her, statement. Detective W. McLennan, stationed at Petone, described bow, acting on advice from New Plymouth, he searched the gorse alongside the service station and he found the suitcase produced, containing various articles of old clothing. Detective Kane described how he interviewed Mortpn in regard to his deserting his, ' ship the “Cambridge,” on March Ist last, and a s to the theft of certain articles from the slap. The accused then made a statement adm tting the theft of a camera, a pair ,of binoculars.. £2 135,. and .. articles of clothing. Witness had tested the compressed air pistol and found it to be capable of killing or disabling a man. After pleading guilty,; both the accused were committed to the Supreme Court for'sentence. . ' •' The Magistrate remanded the woman Cooper- to appear at Wanganui on August 31st on a charge of robbing Clifford Thomas Organ at Wanganui, on August 13, of £1 10s, and of wounding him by shooting him in the leg. The Magistrate intimated that he would deal -with rthe remainder of the charges, which-were summary, after the major ope had been disposed ofin, the Supreme Court. -