“CAT BURGLAR” IN COURT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 703, 1 July 1929, Page 1

“CAT BURGLAR” IN COURT

Committed for Sentence

TWENTY-SEVEN CHARGES

TWENTY witnesses gave evidence in the Police Court this morning, when Reginald Gordon Cotterill faced 27 charges. Cotterill, who by his daring exploits in gaining entry to numerous city offices had earned the nickname of the “eat burglar,” pleaded guilty on 26 charges of breaking and entering and one of false pretences, being committed to the ►Supreme Court for sentence.

Described as a motor-driver, aged 19, Cotterill was a woe-begond figure as he stood in the dock. He is short, almost a weakling in appearance, and did not look like a man who would take the remarkable risks in scaling' walls and light-wells that he must have done.

There were 26 charges of breaking and entering against the accused, but only 12 charges included the count of theft, the remaining ventures evidently having been made without reward. Although more than a score of city oflices were entered, the total in goods and money that was taken amounted to only £lB 3s 6d. Including the two detectives’, 20 depositions were taken, and the hearing of the case occupied nearly two hours. Messrs. E. Smith and H. Trevelyan King, J.P.’s, were on the Bench. Evidence given by occupiers of the offices that had been entered was largely a series of descriptions of how their ransacked premises had looked in the morning after they had been entered and a recounting of the various methods, all previously reported in The Sun, of how the marauder had effected entry into the premises he had visited. One witness was of the opinion that, to force his way into the offices of the Farmers’ Freezing Company, Cotterill must have climbed perilously round the light well in Endean's Buildings, where a slip would mean a fall to the tiled floor 40ft below-. According to the evidence, Cotterill had concentrated on buildings situated in Shortland Street, Fort Street, Lome Street, Victoria Street, Swanson Street and Queen Street. His first venture was on May 27, and his last on June 20, the night that he was arrested by Acting-Detective Mills. There was another charge to which Cotterill also pleaded guilty, of obtaining a car valued at £IOO from Edgar Pearce by means of a valuedess cheque. During the hearing of evidence, Mr. W. W. King, who appeared for accused, asked whether the man might be allowed to sit down, as the ease seemed likely to drag on for some time. Chief-Detective Hammond: What should he want to sit down for? He has been spending his nights w-alking about the roofs of buildings. The Justices, how-ever, gave accused the desired permission. HIDING IN LIFT WELL Acting-Detective Mills told the court, how he had arrested Cotterill in Shorts Building on June 20. Witness had been making an examination of the premises when he found Cotterill hiding in the shadows at the back of the lift well. “I accosted him,” continued the detective, “and he gave his name as Gordon Martin, of Birkdale, saying that he had come into the building for a certain purpose. There was nothing on him to verify the name he gave me and he was carrying an electric torch, so I took him up to the detective office. There, witness continued, Cotterill had made a statement when DetectiveSergeant Bickerdike was also present. A second statement was made on the following day and a third five days later. The detective said that he had visited a boarding-house in Hobson Street, where accused had been living on the day after the arrest and he had found a number of cheques missing from an office in Victoria Arcade, in a portmanteau. Concealed in a city picture theatre, witness had found a revolver taken from another office. According to statements produced

by witness and Detective MeWhirter, Cotterill was 23 years of age. He was born in Whangarei, whence he had come to Auckland two months ago. On arrival in Auckland he had stayed with friends in Birkenhead, and was employed as a bus driver. A month prior to making the statement on June 21, he had lost his employment and had shifted over from Birkenhead to a Hobson Street boarding-house. His action had been due to the fact that he was out of work and wanted money to carry on with. Cotterill regretted that his slight knowledge of Auckland made it difficult for him to explain to the police the exact location of buildings he had entered. The statements concluded with a series of accounts of the manner in which entry had been effected to the buildings. In some cases the man had taken advantage of an open window; in others he had concealed himself in the building until it had been left deserted when he had commenced operations; to enter more difficult premises he had been forced to take the risks which had earned him the soubriquet of the “cat burglar.’' Cotterill expressed his intention of pleading guilty to everything. There ■was no request for bail following accused’s committal to the Supreme Court.