AFTER 18 YEARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 350, 10 May 1928, Page 9

AFTER 18 YEARS

MAN ARRESTED ON THEFT CHARGE BORROWED HORSE IN 1910 Joseph O’Keefe, alias Hugh Sullivan, to-day appeared before Mr. Justice Blair and a jury of 12, and pleaded not guilty to a charge, 18 years old, of stealing a horse, saddle and bridle valued at £lO 10s, and alternatively with receiving stolen property. Mr. Osburne-Lilly, who prosecuted, said that the offence was of considerable age, but time was no bar. The delay was occasioned by the fact that it had been impossible to identify the man who had stolen the horse. In January, 1910, the accused appeared at the farm of Gustav L. Hartman and borrowed the horse. He represented that he was working for a firm of bushfellers. When accused returned from a trip he asked for a loan of the .horse again. Hartman agreed to let him have it if he paid 10s a day. The accused took the horse and disappeared. The horse was eventually found in the possession of a man named Bellingham, to whom the accused had sold it. Evidence on the lines of Mr. Lilly’s opening was called. When interviewed by Detective White, the accused said in evidence, he told everything he knew. When he left Hartman’s employ he had money owing to him. As Hartman could not pay, it was agreed that the horse, saddle and bridle should be taken in payment.

Evidence was called in support of this contention, and after the address, the jury retired at 12.45 p.m.