AMAZING ANOMALY

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2949, 15 October 1925, Page 2

AMAZING ANOMALY

Christchurch, October 14. Any mnn’who lies under a bed in someone else’s house for an hour after sunset can do so with impunity. There is no law under which he can lie prosecuted. This amazing anomaly was disclosed in the hearing of a remarkable case in the Magistrate’s Court to-day, when, before Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., Douglas Alexander Davision, aged 25, was charged with attempted theft from the dwelling of Evangeline Litchfield on September 21. Davision had been found in the twilight hour under Mrs Litchfield’s bed.

In a sf a l enient to the police Davison said that he went into the house. The door was open. '*lle did not know whose house it was. He had been in the place only a couple of minutes when he heard footsteps, and he crawled under a lied. Then he heard footsteps in (he room, and he crawled out again and ran out of the house. He could give no reason for his going into the house.

The Magistrate said that lie did not think there was sufficient evidence of an attempt to steal. The fact that a man was found under a woman’s lied at night could not he taken as evidence that he was there to steal. Davison should have been brought up on a charge of being a vogue and vagaliound, in that he was found ill the residence at night without lawful excuse. Chief-Detective Gibson said that such a charge could not be brought, because the sun set at seven minutes t<> six on that evening, and Mrs Litchfield said that Davision was at the house at twenty minutes to seven. For that charge to he brought Davison would have to he at the house later than an hour after sunset.

The Magistrate: There is not sufficient evidence of an attempt to steal.

The Chief-Detective: There is no protection for women at all? The Magistrate: No, of course there is not. The charge was dismissed.