Mail-Bag Robber Alleges ‘Third Degree’

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 657, 8 May 1929, Page 11

Mail-Bag Robber Alleges ‘Third Degree’

BROTHERS ON TRIAL THEFT FROM WAHINE Press Association WELLINGTON, To-day. Having previously pleaded guilty to robbing the mails of the ferry steamer Wahine, Henry William Bevan to-day alleged that the police had used “third degree’’ methods to secure his statement. r pHE trial of Richard and George Wilfred Ryan in connection with the theft from postal packets on the Wahine of sums amounting to £l7l 5s sd. also of a gold watch, a fountain pen and a ring, bringing the total value to £ IS4 5s sd, commenced in the Supreme Court at Wellington today. In opening, the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. P. K. S. Macassey, said accused had been charged jointly with the offence with Thomas Gordon and Bevan in the Lower Court. Gordon and Bevan had pleaded guilty and had been sentenced. The Crown alleged they and the two accused had carried out a very daring and successful attempt, to get into the hold of the Wahine and steal the contents of a, number of registered letters. Richard Ryan had worked on the Wahine in 1924 and thus knew of the methods of stowing mails on the vessel, and it was alleged he and the other three had conspired to use this knowledge in tampering with the mail bags. In the witness-box Bevan alleged the police haid forced a statement from him after he had been three and ahalf hours in the station. They told him that., if he would say the Ryans were in the affair, they would see that he got probation. He had actually received a sentence of two years in a Borstal institution. Gordon had gone into the mail hold, that being the arrangement between witness and Gordon. Witness also denied having told the detectives that Richard Ryan and Gordon had made arrangements for the theft of the mail. During the questioning of witness by the Crown Prosecutor, counsel took objection to the witness not having been declared hostile, but bis Honour said Mr. Macassey was taking the right course, having regard to the serious statement Bevan had made.