053-NLR-NLR-V-12-PUNCHIRALA-KORALA-v.-JOHN.pdf
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1909.Present: Mr. Justice Wendt.
June 16.
PUNCHIRALA KORALA v. JOHN.
P. C., Regatta, 11,004.Instrument of house-breaking—A carpenter's gouge—Penal Code, s. 449—Ordinance No. 12 of 1906.
A carpenter’s gouge is an instrument that is capable of beingused for purposes of house-breaking, and a person who is inpossession of such an instrument under circumstances which leadto the inference that it was intended to be used as a house-breakinginstrument is guilty of an offenoe under seetion 449 of the Penal.Code, as amended by Ordinanoe No. 12 of 1906.
A
PPEAL by the acoused from a conviction under section 449 ofthe Penal Code, as amended by Ordinance No. 12 of 1906.
The facts sufficiently appear in the judgment.
' No counsel appeared.
Cur. adv. mill.
June 16,1909. Wehdt J.—
"■ The appellant has been convicted under section 449 of the PenalCode, as amended by Ordinance No. 12 of 1906, of having beenfound by the Korata having in his possession, without lawful exouso,an instrument of house-breaking. He was found on the high road
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at about 9 p.m. at a place to which he was a stranger, and was 1909.stopped on suspicion. On him were found the instrument in June 18.question, a bunch of keys, and a knife. The defence was that the Wkn~ jKorala put these articles upon the appellant in order to fasten afalse charge upon him. The Magistrate disbelieved that defence,and I disbelieve it, too. The question I reserved for considerationwas whether the instrument in question was an instrument ofhouse-breaking. It has been very properly sent up by the Magis-trate, who correctly describes it as a carpenter’s gouge, but considersthat it is well suited for house-breaking. Under the EnglishStatute 24 and 25, Viet. c. XCVL, section 58, it was enacted that“ whosoever shall be found by night having in his possession withoutlawful excuse any picklockor other implement of house-
breaking shall be guilty,” &c., and in JR. v. Oldham1 it was heldby the Judges upon a case reserved that house-door keys, thoughcommonly used for lawful purposes, are capable of being employedfor purposes of house-breaking, and that it is a question for thejury whether the prisoner had them without lawful excuse and withthe intention of using them as implements of house-breaking.
Alderson B., in giving judgment, expressly mentions a chisel ascapable of being a house-breaking implement. That case is in point.
There were circumstances here, such as the mode in which thegouge was carried, the false defence set up, &c., from which it wasopen to the Magistrate to infer as he has done that the instrumentwas intended to be used for house-breaking.
I dismiss the appeal.
Appeal dismissed.
! (1852) 2 Dm. Q. 0. 432.