The Leader and Orange Stock and Station News, Wed 8 Feb 1928 ¹

ORANGE QUARTER SESSIONS.
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SOME UNSAVORY [sic] CASES.
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(Before His Honor Judge Armstrong.)
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    The local Quarter Sessions were opened yesterday, three criminal cases being set down for hearing.
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OFFENCE AGAINST A BOY.
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    Francis Andrew McLeod, a man about 30 years old; pleaded not guilty to a charge of indecently assaulting a boy, at Orange, on December 10.

    Mr Stacey prosecuted for the Crown, and McLeod conducted his own case.

    The following jury was empanelled:—Walter R Draper, Carl A Wulff, William EF Satchell, Sydney H Cutler, Frank Chapman, Leslie R Lawson, William J Buttle, Hugh McKettell, William M Betts, Herbert R Neale, Edward M Kelly, William A Mayne.

    The accused challenged eight out of the first thirteen jurymen called, and therefore exhausted his right. There remained seven to be empanelled without challenges. Before the twelfth had been selected, the panel had been exhausted, one jury being in retirement, and some having been excused. The necessary addition was made from the body of the court.

    Constable Hardy, of Cargo, who was in Orange, and in plain clothes, on the day in question, described what he saw accused do to a boy who was looking in a shop window. Later, he saw accused and some boys in the grounds of St Joseph’s Church, where McLeod was behaving in a very peculiar manner. Witness questioned him, and endeavoured to arrest him, but he struggled and got away.

    To the accused:—I saw nothing objectionable in the church grounds, but I did in the main streets.

    Leslie T Pitts, a constable at Orange, deposed that at 9 o’clock, on the night in question, he arrested McLeod. On the following morning, McLeod told witness that his reason for running away from Hardy was that he thought he was trespassing.

    The boy, [William Pound], in the case, who gave his age as seven years, gave his evidence intelligently, and corroborated Hardy’s evidence. He said McLeod offered him ice cream and toys. In answer to the accused, he said there was no molestation in the church grounds.

    The accused, on oath, said that, if he touched either of the boys, it was a pure accident. He asked them where the RC Church was, and promised them something for their direction. He wanted to go to a RC society in order to get assistance, as he was travelling, and in poor circumstances. When he broke away from Constable Hardy, he did so because he was afraid of being charged with being a trespasser, having ulterior designs.

    To the Crown Prosecutor: I am very sensitive and very easily alarmed. I did not want to be charged with anything concerning the 7th Commandment.

    To His Honor: I did not feign to be drunk at the church. I was afraid of being arrested for trying to steal.

    After a few minutes’ retirement, the jury returned with a verdict of not guilty.

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The Sydney Morning Herald, Fri 10 Feb 1928 ²

COUNTRY NEWS.
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…

ORANGE QUARTER SESSIONS.

Orange, Thursday.

    At the Quarter Sessions, before Judge Armstrong,
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    Francis Andrew McLeod, (30), who was charged with a serious offence against a boy, was found not guilty, and was acquitted.

 

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¹     The Leader and Orange Stock and Station News, Wed 8 Feb 1928, p. 6. Emphasis added.

²     The Sydney Morning Herald, Fri 10 Feb 1928, p. 12.

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