Petersfield.
ALLEGED BURGLARY.—John Dunn, an Irishman, was brought up by Superintendent Longlands at the Magistrates’ Clerk’s Office on Wednesday before J. Waddington, Esq., charged with breaking into the house of Mr. George Etherington, auctioneer, Petersfield, and stealing various articles therefrom. The evidence of Mr. Etherington, his son Alfred, and others being taken, the prisoner was committed for trial at the Winchester Assizes. We regret that out want of space prevents us giving a full report of the evidence, particularly as Mr. Etherington exhibited some good English pluck when he heard at night a burglar in his premises.
Hampshire Telegraph — Saturday 14 January 1865
PETERSFIELD.
Agent—Mr. G. DUPLOCK
BURGLARY.—At the Magistrates’ Clerk’s Office on Wednesday, (before J. Waddington, Esq.), John Dunn was brought up in custody charged with committing a burglary on the premises of Mr. G. Etherington, auctioneer, &c., of this town, in the night of Monday last. — Mr. Etherington deposed as follows:—On Monday night last I went to bed about 10 o’clock, leaving the front shop door unbolted for my son, who was spending the evening at a neighbour’s house, the shutters were up as usual, but not fastened. Early in the next morning, I should think between two and three, I was awoke by hearing a noise in the front shop, I jumped out of bed and ran to the top of the stairs and called out ‟Is that you Alfred?” supposing it was my son; no answer was made, and just at that moment I saw a man go out of the front door, I ran down stairs quickly, and caught the man by the cape he was wearing, he had got just outside of the door on the pavement, I had only my night clothes on, I said ‟What are you doing here?” he replied in a hurried and suppressed manner, ‟I am a detective, I am a detective,” I said ‟how came my front door open?” he said ‟the fellow is just gone up here, let me go and I will soon bring him back to you,” I said ‟no I shant let you go, you must come into the house with me,” I pulled him towards the door, and as I did so, I saw that he had my son’s Inverness cape on, and I said ‟you have got my son’s coat and some of my property,” he took out a packet of brass stair eyes from his pocket and held them towards me saying ‟is this your property?” I put my hand out to take it, and as I did so, he slipped himself out of the cape and made his escape, dropping on the pavement the following articles, besides the cape, viz.:—A pair of cricket boots, a pink cotton gown, six yards of webbing, a tape measure, a leather bag, a packet of stair eyes, a piece of blue flannel, a pipe, a piece of white leather, a piece of red cloth, also four yards of crimson damask cloth which had been sent to me by a customer to cover a set of chairs, I then sent for the police, and afterwards accompanied P.C. Elderfield to the Jolly Sailor, public-house, a little out of Petersfield, on the Portsmouth road, and there saw the prisoner sitting by the fire, he had no coat on, I said ‟you are very much like a man I have seen before to-day,” he said ‟I have not left the house, I have been here all night, and slept with two people up above,” I said ‟you seem to have two shirts on, and one of them is very much like my son’s.” P.C. Elderfield then said to prisoner ‟you must go to Petersfield with us.” I went to the police station and saw the shirt now produced taken from the prisoner’s back, to the best of my belief it is my son’s shirt, and I believe prisoner to be the man I caught on the pavement outside my house.
— Alfred Etherington, son of prosecutor, deposed: On Monday, the 9th, I had been spending the evening at a neighbours house, and went home between twelve and one. I bolted the front door after me, the shop was dark, and the shutters were in their usual state. I turned out the gas which had been left burning in the sitting-room up stairs, and went to bed. The shirt now produced is my property. I know it by its having a hole in each elbow and a rough seam up the left side. I saw it on Monday about noon lying in the office; I next saw it on prisoner’s back when he was brought to our office on Tuesday. The Inverness cape, the cricket boots, and the pipe also belong to me. I had left the pipe in the pocket of the cape. On Monday I received payment of a bill amounting to 8s. 4d., consisting of three two-shilling pieces, one shilling, one fourpenny-piece, and I am not sure whether the remainder was a shilling or two sixpences, I put this money into a drawer in the office. When I was called down on Tuesday morning I found the drawer open, the papers strewed about, and the money gone. I went for the police, and afterwards observed that one of the shutters had been partially displaced, and I saw leaning against the wall a board which had been used to fill up a broken pane in the window. When I came down stairs the gas was lit in the office, and a great deal of paper had been burnt.
— Mr. George Etherington recalled: In two compartments of my shop window I have had boards placed instead of glass. Shortly after the man had escaped from me on Tuesday morning I observed one of these boards had been removed, the opening was quite large enough to admit a man.—John Stubbington deposed: I work for Mr. Thomas Sturt, coach maker, Petersfield. On Thursday morning about half-past ten, I found a poker leaning against Mr. Sturt’s yard gate, which is very near to Mr. Etherington’s. I took the poker into the shop, and in the afternoon I gave it to Police-constable Elderfield, the poker now produced is the same.
— Harriet Robinson deposed:I am the wife of James Robinson, who keeps the ‟Jolly Sailor,” public-house. The poker now produced is my husband’s property; it was used the traveller’s kitchen. I saw it there, and used it about half-past ten on Monday night. Prisoner was lodging in the house that night, and had been from the previous Saturday. I saw him go up to bed on Monday night. He slept in a room over the travellers’ kitchen, which is apart from my house, and has a separate entrance. The bed-room door is fastened on the inside by a piece of stick, as the lock is out of order. Any one could let himself out.
— P.C. Elderfield deposed that on Tuesday morning, about four o’clock, he went with Superintendent Longland to Mr. Etherington’s, who showed him a hole in the shop-window, from which a board had been forcibly removed; the nails being drawn out. The board was about 2ft. by 1½ft. Went in pursuit of the prisoner, and between seven and eight called at ‟The Jolly Sailor,” in company with Mr. Etherington. Witness corroborated Mr. Etherington’s evidence as to what took place at the public-house, and added that prisoner said there were two men sleeping in the same room with him, who would prove that he was there all night. He (witness) called those men, and one said prisoner slept in the next bed to him, and he did not know that he had left during the night. On the way to Petersfield Mr. Etherington remarked to prisoner ‟I am sure you are the man,” to which he replied ‟I shall not try to convince you that I am not;” and on Mr. Etherington’s saying ‟I know it is the same voice,” he answered ‟It might be.” On their way to the station they stopped at Mr. Etherington’s office, where, on searching prisoner, he found three two-shilling pieces, one shilling, one sixpence, one fourpenny- piece, and one penny, and in his coat pocket a quantity of lucifer matches. He charged him with the burglary, took him to the police-station, and locked him up. Witness also produced the poker which he had received from Stubbington, and said he had carefully compared it with the marks on the board which had been removed from the window, and found they exactly agreed. There were also red marks near the point of the poker, and the window-sash is painted red.—Prisoner put a great many questions to the witnesses, and displayed a considerable amount of intelligence, but failed altogether to invalidate their evidence; and having received the usual caution, he declined to say anything, except that he was not guilty, and was committed for trial at the next assizes.