SAFE-BLOWERS GUILTY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 903, 21 February 1930, Page 18

SAFE-BLOWERS GUILTY

TWO MEN WHO BROKE INTO STATION REMANDED FOR SENTENCE Press Association NAPIER, Thursday. ; The case in which Joseph Coyle and Edward' George Stanley Elliott were indicted on a charge of breaking and entering Hastings railway station with intent to commit a crime, and in which Coyle was also charged with being in unlawful possession of explosives, was resumed in the Supreme Court at Napier today. Evidence was given by witnesses yesterday to show that the safe at the station had been blown open by gelignite, but the contents were not disturbed. John Laird, a roadman, employed by the Hawke’s Bay County Council, stated that gelignite had been taken from his hut during his absence, and without his permission. Coyle had explained his possession of explosive by saying Laird had given it to him. In summing up, his Honour said the case against Coyle was stronger than that against Elliott, because all the evidence had applied more to him than to Elliott. In running through the evidence given, his Honour stated that it had been shown that the Crown’s strongest point against the accused had been the ownership of a chisel, which had been traced to Coyle. There was also the fact that in Coyle's lorry had been found leather gloves and some fuse, and that gelignite had later been discovered to have been hidden by Coyle in a fireplace. Elliott had, however, been found on the station premises just after the crime. There was more evidence to show that whereas Coyle was an expert in the use of explosives, Elliott knew nothing about them. The jury, after a retirement of two and a-half hours, returned a verdict of guilty on all counts against both accused. They were remanded for sentence.