Man and Woman Caught After Midnight Chase

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 129, 22 August 1927, Page 9

Man and Woman Caught After Midnight Chase

BURGLARY CHARGE DENIED

TO BE TRIED BY SUPREME COURT

IN the early hours of the morning of August 6, Thomas Herbert Skinner, aged 27, and Mrs. Ina Beatrice Wills, aged 25, were captured by police officers after a hot motor chase in Dominion Eoad. To-day they were charged at the Police Court with breaking and entering the shop of Sybil Muriel Townsend, at 527 Manukau Eoad, and stealing 12 glass lolly jars, and confectionery valued at ,£l6 14s. They pleaded not guilty and were committed to the Supreme Court for trial.

T?OTH were also charged with attempting to break and enter the shop of Raymond Lawson McDonald, grocer, ot Khyber Pass Road. Sybil Muriel Townsend, the keeper of the shop, said that she locked up about 11.15 p.m. Early next morning when she returned to the shop she found that glass in tlTe front door had been broken and the shop ransacked. The till was open, and IS halfpennies, the only cash left overnight, was missing, and 11 jars of confectionery, some slabs of chocolate, chewing gum, and shop books had been stolen. The value of the missing goods was £l6 14s. Raymond Lawson McDonald, grocer of 2SA, Khyber Pass Road, said that an attempt had been made to break into his shop, but having a patent lock fitted to the door, it could not be opened. ENTER, A POLICEMAN Constable H. S. Butler, who was doing plain clothes duty in Khyber Pass on the night' of August 5, said that he passed McDonald’s shop at 12.30 a.m., and the door was then intact. He then walked down Khyber Pass Road toward Newmarket, and beard a motor-car coming slowly behind him. When he was about 175 yards from McDonald's shop the car, which was driven by the accused Wills, drew level with him, and then turned round. She drove the car slowly toward McDonald's shop. THE MAN SPOTTED Witness waited a few moments and then walked back toward the shop and had a last sight of the car as it crossed Grafton Road. He noticed a man run from McDonalds doorway, and a few seconds later saw him on the footboard of the motor-car. Passing McDonald’s shop again he noticed that a panel of glass in the door had been broken. The motor-car then turned into Grafton Road, and later passed witness coming up Khyber Pass Road toward Symonds Street. As the car passed him he was able to see that the accused Wills was. driving, and that Skinner .was also in the car. The accused went up Symonds Street and down Eden Terrace. THE CHASE BEGINS Witness went back and got into a car driven by a man named Ellis. The car driven by accused came up quickly and passed Ellis, but it stopped further up the road. Witness then got out of Ellis’s car, and followed on the back of a motor-cycle. Witness alighted at the corner of Balmoral and Dominion Roads, and there the accused’s car passed him. When witness was again picked up by Ellis, Detective Allen and Constable Kelly wesie in the car. The accused stopped in Dominion Road, and the police car drove past. Detective Allen and Constable Kelly got out of their car, and stood in the middle of the road, as accused were about to move off again. The car did not stop, and the officers had to jump aside to escape being hit. Witness and the other officers followed, and there was a speeding race up Dominion Road. At the Mount Albert Road corner, accused stopped their car, and witness saw Mrs. Wills run to one side of the road. He saw her because she crossed through the beam of tbe headlights, but witness did not see Skinner. “When I caught Mrs. Wills,” be said, “she was stooping down with her face covered up beside some small trees.” “When the motor-car was examined the goods stolen from Miss Townsend’s shop were found in it.” FINGER-PRINT EVIDENCE Claude Montague Francis, fingerprint expert at Police Headquarters, Wellington, said that he had examined three of the empty lolly-jars found in possession of the accused, and on them were found 10 prints identical with those of Miss Townsend. Alfred Roy Wilson Ellis, the driver of the car commandeered by the police, gave an account of the chase, and said that he saw both the man and the woman leave the car after the chase up Dominion Road. A MERCERY BUSINESS Cecil Coburn, a young man, who assisted Mrs. Wills in a mercery business at 91 Queen Street, said that he met her first in June last, Skinner had visited the shop on two occasions to his knowledge, but he had heard nothing of his conversation with Mrs. Wills. On the night of August 5, Mrs. Wilis left the shop early, saying that she was going to the pictures because she had neuritis. Detective A. Allen detailed the movements of the pursuers and pursued, after he and Constable Kelly had joined in the chase in Dominion Road. He described the arrest of the woman Wills, who was wearing gloves, and the finding of the lolly jars, together with a sum of lOd, which was found under the back seat of the aceuseds’ car. Tbe female accused drove witness back to the Police Station and while on the way witness asked her to drive to the shop broken into by the male accused. She drove direct to Macdonald’s grocery shop. Witness asked the woman where the man lived, but she said she did not know his name or where he lived, but thought bis address was somewhere in Newton. She was arrested and searched, and a card was found in her bag bearing the inscription: Harry Skinner, 37 East Street, Newton. She made a statement, which witness read to the court.

She was a married woman, she said, and had been in Auckland about six weeks. She had formerly lived in New Plymouth. She started in business in Queen Street as a mercer, and owns an Essex car, which she bought with her own money. About a fortnight before her arrest she met the male accused, who called at her shop, for orders for dry cleaning. On the evening of August 5 she went to the pictures, and afterward was driving her car in Symonds Street when she saw the man who had previously called at her shop. He got into her car and asked to be driven to Epsom. She remonstrated as the hour was late, but be insisted, so she drove out near tbe car barn. The man then got out of the car and disappeared for some minutes, but returned carrying a large paf&el. They then went back toward the city, and stopped in Khyber Pass Road. The man got put wdiile she took the car down a side street an’d soon afterward came sunning back in an excited manner. Then followed details of the pursuit by the police car. WHEN POLICE CALLED Continuing, Detective Allen said that at about five o’clock the same morning he called at 37 East Street with Constables Carroll and Kelly, whei’e they found Skinnei-, apparently asleep. When informed he was suspected of being In the car with the woman he denied it. At the detective office Skinner was identified by the woman Wills as tbe man who was in the car with her. Skinner also made a statement in which he said he was a single man, 27 years of age, and an arrival from Australia six weeks ago. He said that on the night of August 5 he took a girl home whom he had met in the city and had then gone to his lodgings, where he was arrested early the next morning. Bail was allowed in the case of the woman, but Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.:\_ would not consider the man’s release." “Let him stay where he is,” said the magistrate. “He comes from Australia and not much is known about him.” The accused reserved their defence and were committed to the Supreme Court for trial.