TWICE CHANGED PLEA

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

TWICE CHANGED PLEA

DETECTIVE DENIES USING INFLUENCE ATTACK ON GIRL Having altered his plea twice, j Edward Russell Everett, aged 32. yesterday and to-day stood his trial at the | Supreme Court on a charge of attempted rape, or alternatively, assault with intent to commit rape. The offence was alleged to have been committed on a road at Manurewa. In the Lower Court Everett pleaded not guilty, but later he changed this plea to guilty, only to reverse it again to one of not guilty. In evidence yesterday Everett said he had been influenced to plead guilty by Detective-Sergeant ’Bickerdike. This suggestion was refuted to-day by Mr. Bickerdike. who said he had not influenced the accused or told him that the penalties for assault and attempted rape were the same. Addressing the jury, the Crown Prosecutor Mr. V. R. Meredith, said that women in the country often had to travel on lonely roads, and it was the jury’s duty to see that adequate protection was given them against criminal assault. The jury, after half-an-hour’s retirement. returned a verdict of guilty on the first charge. A recommendation for mercy was made on account of accused’s youth. Everett was remanded until Friday for sentence.