ALLEGED BURGLARY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1938, Page 9

ALLEGED BURGLARY

MASTERTON CASE. HEARING IN WELLINGTON. When a constable was making his rounds in Masterton in the early morning of January 21 he investigated a noise coming from a building and shone his torch on a young man walking across the roof. Challenged to come down, the man paused, then ran along the roof, scrambled over a barbed-wire fence, and disappeared after a chase. The constable found that the nearby premises of the Ranfurly Club had been broken into. Yesterday, in the Wellington Supreme Court, Wellington, a jury was asked to decide whether a young man arrested in Masterton was the person whom the constable had seen on the roof. Accused, William George Collie, labourer, aged 22, pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaking and entering the club by night with intent to commit theft. He was represented by Mr H. R. Biss. Mr Justice Reed presided.

The Crown Prosecutor, Mr W. H. Cunningham, outlining the case to the jury, said that while the constable had his torch shining on the man on the roof he saw sufficient details to recognise him again. Two spots of blood were found on a gate over which the man had climbed. The wire on the fence had been broken. When accused was arrested there were fairly extensive scratches on his face. Asked to account for his injuries, he said he had received them through falling off a bicycle the night before. The bicycle which he claimed to have ridden bore no damage marks. Accused told the police the fall took place shortly after midnight, and, curiously enough, fixed the spot within 200 or 300 yards of where the man jumped the fence. Mr Cunningham said that when taken to his lodgings accused produced the clothes he was wearing the night before. Those included a pair of bloodstained trousers and a cardigan, with some of the threads in it broken and ripped. There were bloodstains on his shirt and a sleeve button was missing. A button with a piece of cloth adhering to it was found near the bafbed-wire gate. Evidence was called in support of the Crown’s contentions. The case is being continued today.