DISTRICT COURT.—CRIMINAL SITTING.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 406, 18 November 1868, Page 2

DISTRICT COURT.—CRIMINAL SITTING.

Wednesday, Nov. 17. (Before His Honor, Judge Clarke.) LARCENY AS A BAILEE. John Hooper was charged with larceny as a bailee. Mr Pitt acted as Crown Prosecutor. The prisoner was undefended. He pleaded not guilty. George James Ilooke : I have known the prisoner for about fourteen months. In September last I delivered to him, at the Police Camp, a watch, with verbal instructions to him to deliver the same to Mr Win, Harrison, Griles Terrace, along with a raffle paper. A few days afterwards I saw him in the street. I asked him if he had delivered the watch. He said " ¥~es ; that's all right " I next saw the watch in the shop of Mr Bruce, jeweller, Gladstone street. 1 never authorised the prisoner to dispos of the watch.

By the prisoner: I gave you no letter along with the watch. William Harrison : lam a storekeeper at Giles Terrace. I never before saw the watch now produced. The prisoner never delivered to me that watch or any other watch. By the prisoner: I never expected a watch from Mr Rooke. 1 had no message from Mr Eooke on the subject. Samuel Jones: I am a miner at Giles Terrace. In October last I bought from the prisoner the watch produced, lie told me a woman had given it to him as a present. This was the case for the prosecution.

The prisoner said he had nothing to say, except that Mr Harrison was never authorised to receive a watch from Mr Kooke.

The jury, without leaving the box. found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to nine months' hard labor.

STEALING GOLD FROJI MATES. James Mahone was charged with stealing a quantity of gold, of the value of £9 12s, from Hector Urquhart and others. He pleaded not guilty. The Crown Prosecutor stated the circumstances of the case. The prisoner, with some others, was at work as a miner on Poverty Terrace. The gold was kept in the hut occupied by the prisoner and the others. On the occasion of the first washing-up, Urquhart considered the gold was far from being equal to the prospects, and the yield continued very much less than the prospects. The prisoner was suspected, and another man was employed in bringing the gold into town. Subsequently the ground was abandoned, and, about that time, the party heard that the prisoner was selling gold to the Bank of New South Wales. They made inquiries, found it was a fact, and that the gold was similar to the gold obtained on the particular terrace upon which they had been at work. The prisoner, in explanation, stated tha , after the party had separated, he continued to work for a day—on a Tuesday—and that the gold in question was the produce of that day's work. But witnesses would be called who would show that he could not have been at work at the time he represented. The Crown Prosecutor, in conclusion, referred to the legal peculiarities of the case. He submitted that there were circumstances in which the appropriation of a partner's property was theft, and he also quoted the 39 th section of the Larceny Act, as applicable to such a case as that against the prisoner. The evidence in the case was fully reported at the time it was heard in the Resident Magistrate's Court. His Honor was of opinion that a partner could not be indicted for stealing part of the partnership property, unless, as in the case cited by the Crown Prosecutor— Regina v. Rogers.

1 Cox, c.c. 13—there were facta from which a bailment might be implied, in which case an indictment might stand. His Honor thought, with the CrownProsecutor, that the Resident Magistrate had done rightly in sending the case for trial. He hoped that public notice would be attracted to the question, in order that miners might be protected from such thefts. The jury accordingly returned a verdict of Not Guilty, and the prisoner was discharged.

ASSAULT AT A'DDISOX's FLAT. Michael Cullen and George Black were charged with a serious assault upon Henry Christouson. They pleaded not guilty. The circumstances under which the assault was committed, and under winch the defendants had been apprehended, were fully reported at the time of the occurrence. Christenson had gone to Addison's Flat to work in a claim for his relative, Mr Brown of the Camp Hotel, who had purchased a share in the claim, at a bailiff's sale. On this account Christenson was obnoxious to some of the other claimholders, and, although they were friendly in their behaviour to him "on his first visit, shortly after he had left their hut he was knocked down and so seriously assaulted as to be for some time confined to the house. He identified Black and Cullen as his assailants, and there was corroborative evidence of some of the circumstances given by the police. For the defence, witnesses were called who proved that Black was not in the hut or its neighborhood on the night in question, and they also stated that, after Christenson had left the hut, and after the cries of a person were heard outside, Cullen continued in the hut and in their company. His Honor, after summing up the cases, said it would be for the jury to say whether they thought there was sufficient identification of Black to warrant a conviction. There were no corroborative circumstances to assist them, or anything beyond the testimony of the prosecutor, and Black had neither beeu previously seen by the prisoner, nor had he been at the but on the night in question. The prosecutor miadit be stating what he thoroughly believed to be true ; still something might be attributed to the state of excitement in which he naturally was at the time. If the jury had any doubt as to Black, he recommended them to give him the benefit of that doubt. With regard to Cullen, it was for their consideration whether they were to believe throe or four witnesses who bad positively stated that he had not left the hut for fifteen minutes after the cries of Christenson were heard. If these witnesses were to be believed, Cullon could not be the person, or one of the persons who had assaulted Christenson; but, against their evidence, there was the distinct identification of Cullen by Christenson, who had seen him in the hut only a few minutes before, and there was the subui'diuate facts that the witnesses were Culleu's mates, and that tbeir evidence was suspiciously similar.

The jury were absent for about au hour and a half. On returning they found Michael Cullcn guilty ofa common assault, and Ceorge Black not guilty. Michael Cullen said—l have neither been justly nor f lrly dealt with. It is a well-known fact that I am innocent of the charge, aud I have been unjustly dealt with. That's all I have to say.

His Honor said the observations of the prisoner teuded rather to aggravate the offence. Indeed his whole conduct throughout had been extremely reprehensible. Had the Crown Prosecutor not abandoned the chief count in the indictment, the prisoner's sentence would have been eighteen months' imprisonment. As it was, the sentence of the Court would be that he be kept to hard labor for nine months.

This concluded the criminal business of the session, and the Court was adjourned until eleven o'clock to-day, when the appealed mining case between Luke and party and Perry and party will be heard.