Charge fails due to lack of proof

A MAN who was prowling around the student sector late at night has avoided a conviction for burglary.

Joshua George Harrex (32) was captured on CCTV in dark clothes in Hyde St walking on to properties during the evening of July 20 last year.

He admitted a charge of unlawfully being in an enclosed yard when he tried to open the door to a sleepout but denied a count of burglary from 18 hours earlier.

A student who lived in Grange St woke to a man snooping through her belongings about 4am, using the torch on his phone to see.

He left emptyhanded despite there being a laptop and other valuables on a desk, she told the court at Harrex’s judgealone trial before the Dunedin District Court this week.

She described the man having a beard — ‘‘dark ginger and pretty long’’ — but defence counsel Joe O’Neill said there was a more likely culprit than his client who sported such facial hair.

The Otago Daily Times reported earlier this month on the conviction of a 20yearold man in the Dunedin District Court on five counts of burglary and three of making an intimate visual recording. He had filmed women in the shower through open bathroom windows and stolen underwear, sometimes while they slept.

He was caught when he dropped his phone and wallet at a Queen St address and was sentenced to eight months’ home detention.

Mr O’Neill showed the ODT article to witnesses and suggested the Grange St breakin had the hallmarks of that offender.

The student who woke to find the man in her flat said the beard she saw in the half light did not match though, and police officers who investigated the case said the 20yearold man was never in the frame.

Judge John Macdonald did not appear swayed by the possibility of a case of mistaken identity but ruled the police had not proven the charge against Harrex beyond reasonable doubt.

He said it was ‘‘at least suspicious’’ that Harrex was wandering around North Dunedin late at night on two consecutive nights and it was entirely possible he was responsible for the Grange St burglary.

But there was no forensic link to the defendant, the judge said.

Police did not dust for fingerprints, officer in charge Constable Katie Bell told the court.

She could not explain why not. Judge Macdonald also noted the Grange St victim had not been able to pick out Harrex among others on a photo montage.

The defendant’s wife and three children had been in Christchurch at the time and when interviewed by police, the defendant initially told police he had travelled to the area from his Fairfield home because he could not sleep and fancied a stroll.

Later he told Const Bell he was looking to buy cannabis.

If that was the case, she said, why did Harrex run from the Hyde St house when he heard someone’s voice?

He was ‘‘startled’’, he said. ‘‘It’s hard to make sense of it really,’’ Judge Macdonald said.

‘‘I’m not sure how many men there are in Dunedin with dark ginger beards.’’

Harrex was sentenced to 80 hours’ community work for the Hyde St offence, while the other charge was dismissed.