West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Wednesday 26 March 1902, page 5


CHARGE OF SHEEP-STEALING. THE NORTHAM CASE CONTINUED. At the Criminal Court yesterday, the trial was continued, before the Chief-Jus-tice and a jury of 12, of Alfred Beel, Frank Hearnden, and Andrew Thomp-son, on a charge of having on December 30 last stolen 280 sheep, and on January 13 last 300 sheep, the property, of W. T. Loton, the Mayor of Perth. The pris-oners were also charged on both counts with receiving. The Crown Solicitor, Mr. R. B. Burn-side, prosecutel, and Mr. Beresford ap-peared for the prisoner Thompson. Beel and Hearnden were undefended. Briefly, the case for the Crown was that the sheep were missed from one of the paddocks of the Spring Hill station, near Northam. A number of sheep, bearing the same brands and earmarks as those missed by Mr Loton, were con-signed by persons who signed themselves Leslie Bros., to various auctioneering firms at Kalgoorlie. Mr. Loton subse-quently clainmed the sheep as his pro-perty. Early in January, Beel intro-duced Hearnden to a business man at Northamn as Mr. Leslie, and produced a cheque for £156, signed by Cheney and Co., the name of one of the Kalgoorlie firms to whom some of the sheep had been consigned. Hearnden endorsed the cheque as "Fred Leslie, for Leslie Bros." On January 13, the accused Thompson, inquired at the Northam goods sheds for trucks in which to consign sheep. William Henry Gobey, a member of the firm of Gobey, McPherson and Co., Northam, continued his evidence. He was cross-examined at some length by the accused, Beel, in regard to their business transactions. Saul Solomon, a farmer, residing at Northam, gave evidence of certain busi-ness transactions which he had had with the accused Beel. Walter Davis, a wood-cutter, deposed that he had worked for the accused Beel. The document produced had been signed by Thompson at Beel's house, and the signature was witnessed by the witness. He had seen Thompson at Beel's house about eight weeks before Christmas and up to January 16. George Hungerford, accountant at the National Bank at Northam, said that on January 8, he cashed a cheque of Messrs. Gobey, McPherson, and Co. for £134 11s. 6d., payable to Leslie Bros. He paid the money to the accused Hearn-den. Frank Reid, a dairyman at Northam, gave evidence as to accused Hearnden having stayed at the house of the accused Beel. Edward Paley, a railway official, gave evidence to the effect that on December 31 last, the accused Hearnden went to the West Northam goods shed for the purpose of consisting some stock. Constable Gollon, stationed at North-am, deposed to having accompanied De-tective Kavanagh to the accused Beel's house in January last. Kavanagh read a warrant for the accused's arrest. They found in Beel's house the documents pro-duced. Detective James Porter deposed to the arrest of the accused Thompson in Perth. Joseph Condon, a labourer, deposed that he was at the accused Beel's house at East Northam early in December last. Beel said that he had had charge of a paddock for over three years, and that he also had charge of over 1,000 sheep. He said that he wished to send some sheep to Kalgoorlie, and that he be-longed to Leslie Bros. Beel further said that he would pay the witness 8s. per day until the sheep were delivered. He asked the witness to go to the railway station to ask the stationmaster if he would put two bogie trucks into the siding for some sheep for Leslie Bros. The witness went to the station, made the necessary inquiries, and returned and told the accused that the trucks would be there. By the accused Beel: You did not ex-pel me from the paddock for having robbed another man. Detective Kav-anagh "shouted" me a drink in Perth, but he did not mention this case on that occasion. Frederick Bull, shorthand reporter for the Law Courts, gave expert evidence in regard to the similarity between the handwriting in the telegrams produced in the case and other documents written by Beel. Detective Kavanagh, of Perth, deposed to the arrest of the accused Hearnden in Melbourne on February 27 last. Detective Hornsby, of Kalgoorlie, gave evidence to the effect that he had re-ceived certain sheep from Mr. Loton, and he took charge of them. The man mentioned in the present case, who had passed himself off at Kalgoorlie as Leslie, had not been arrested, because he could not be found. Several other witnesses were examined for the Crown. For the defence, the accused Beel call-ed several witnesses, who did not answer to their names. He mentioned, in par-ticular, two witnesses whom he said were important, and whom he would like to call. The Crown Solicitor said that he would do his best to have the witnesses in attendance on the following morning. The Court then adjourned to 11 a.m. on the next day.