HIS EXPLANATION

NZ Truth, Issue 1145, 10 November 1927, Page 5

HIS EXPLANATION

"I got these injuries m a drunken brawl last night," was the explanation which Anderson gave to a sceptical detective. Policemen visited the man's lodgings. In a suitcase at the stairhead they found what they sought — a suitcase filled with new shoes and boots. In the man's room they discovered a pair of brown shoes bearing bloodstains which had not been there very long. , . . What did you do with the handcuffs?" the detectives asked. Anderson and m an unguarded moment he answered: "1 went down to the wharf early this morning and threw them into the sea." It was a clear enough case, said the Crown Prosecutor. And it was, from the moment when James Staples entered the witness-box to swear positively that the boots and, shoes were made by his firm and had been stolen during .previous raids on the warehouse. • * The place had been entered seventeen times during three months, and that -was why watch had been set. Constable Bradley and a. • man named Henry Fisk had kept it together and it was only after a month's patience that Anderson was caught. Nevertheless, the jury took -an hour and a-half to make up its mind on the question, and then found Anderson guilty on the charge of breaking and entering with intent. The other charges of stealing or receiving the shoes found m his possession they rejected. Beforehand, Lawyer Leicester gave them a little lecture on co-. incidences,' regaling them with in-., cidences of skeletons being found where murders had been 'supposed to have happened — and. hadn't — and men being arrested for murder and proving to be the wrong ; persons. Judge Ostler, however, was not impressed by the failure of the jury to convict on the other counts. He sent Anderson away to -study tl\e reformatory system for the next three years.