Tag: St Peter’s Church – crime

Magistrate inspects church fittings

East End News and London Shipping Chronicle – Friday 24 June 1955

Magistrate inspects church fittings

Poplar men found guilty of receiving

STATUES of angels, ecclesiastical vases, memorial plaques, a church bell, a font, a sacristy, and a weather vane, all alleged to have been stolen from a church at Eltham, were displayed in and outside the Thames Courtroom on Friday, and were inspected by the Magistrate (Col. W. E. Batt).

Roy Little, aged 18, general dealer, and his brother, John Henry Little, aged 28, lorry driver, both of Lochnagar-street, Poplar, and Vincent Patrick Keeping, aged 20, general dealer, of no fixed address, pleaded not guilty to stealing between May 7 and June 10 from St. Peter’s Church, Courtland-avenue, Eltham, approximately hundredweights of brass, copper and lead church fittings. valued at £60, the property of the South London Church Fund and Diocesan Board of Finance. six

They also pleaded not guilty to receiving the fittings. knowing them to have been stolen.

STORAGE

Canon Laurence Ambrose Brown, Southwark Diocesan Secretary, in charge of re-building war-damaged churches in South London, said that all the fittings had been stolen from St. Peter’s Church, which had been used for storage purposes for the last 14 years.

Det. Const. Stanley Evans said he found all the fittings at the address of the Littles early in the morning of June 10. In a bedroom in the house, he found Roy Little in bed, with his brother John under the bed. Keeping was hiding, doubled-up, in a clothes cupboard.

After questioning, they were all taken to the police station.

Roy Little told Col. Batt that he bought the fittings from a gipsy at Sidcup. He paid £28 for them and took them to his storage railway arch at Deptford. Because he thought they would not be safe there, he contacted his brother, who was visiting Woolwich, and his brother took them in his lorry to Poplar for safe keeping. John Little said that when John Little said that when they all got to Poplar, his brother and Keening decided to stay the night. When the police knocked on the door he realised that something was wrong and hid under the bed because he was afraid of the police. He did not know the metal was stolen.

Keeping said he helped to unload the church fittings from the “gipsy’s” lorry near Sidcup police station. From the look of the fittings he assumed they must have come from a builder’s yard.

“What, angels and plaques to deceased gentlemen and things like that?” queried Col. Batt, who said that there was no evidence of stealing against the three accused and dismissed the stealing charge. He found them guilty of receiving.

John Little, who was reported to have 13 previous convictions, was remanded on bail of £25 until June 25 and Roy Little and Keeping were both placed on probation for two years.

Abbey Wood man was led into trouble

Kentish Independent – Friday 07 November 1952

ABBEY WOOD MAN WAS LED INTO TROUBLE

Stated to have been led into trouble when he got into un-desirable company, Joseph Ernest Dalladay, 22, street trader, of Abbey Grove, Abbey Wood, was placed on probation for years when he came up for sen-tence at the London Sessions. two

Last sessions. Dalladay pleaded guilty with three other men, who were sentenced to 15, 18 and 21 months’ Imprisonment for a re-ceiving church bell, other articles, which had been stolen from a store in St. Peter’s Church. Courtlands Avenue, Lee, and for taking and driving away a lorry from Kentmere Road, Plumstead, belonging to Harry William Alcorn, of Barth Road, Plumstead.

Mr. Eric Dashwood, Court Probation Officer, said that Dalladay, who had lost a leg in an air raid at the age of 15, had not been in trouble betore

Brass eagle and cross brought into court

Kentish Independent – Friday 19 September 1952

Brass eagle and cross brought into court

A large brass eagle and cross were brought into Greenwich Courtroom on Monday when four men were charged with breaking and entering a church store at St Peter’s Church, Courtlands Avenue, Lee, and stealing lectern pedestals, candlesticks, other metal articles and a brown cloth worth together £200, property of the South London Church Fund.

The men were Henry Causey, 41, labourer of Parry Place, Plumstead, David Edward Power, 26, street trader, of Church Hill, Woolwich, Joseph Ernest Dalloday, 23, welder, of Abbey Grove, Abbey Wood, and Donald Clifford Crooks, 22, stone fixer, of Grovelands Road, St. Pauls Cray.

P.C. Harvey said that at 1:30 on Monday morning he saw a small van come from Courtlands Avenue and proceed towards Eltham. He noticed that the van was “rolling” rather badly and appeared to be heavily laden. He caused it to be stopped at Westhorne Avenue, Eltham, and it was discovered that Power was driving. The other men charged were also in the van. The load consisted of the eagles and similar church property.

FROM HOP FIELDS

Dalloday said: “We have been down the hop fields and we got it (the load) off a bloke down there.” The men were taken to Eltham Police Station where they were charged. After caution, Power said: “The brown cloth belongs in the van.”

At 4.30 the same morning, P.C. Harvey accompanied the Rev C.J. Gunderson to the church, which was bring used as a storehouse – it was bombed during the war – for articles from bombed churches in South London. At the east end of the church lead had been removed from a window about 10ft. from the ground, and a small door had been opened from the inside.

P.C Harvey claimed that Power had said that he had taken the van from the yard of a Mr. Allcorn at Plumstead: and Det.-Con. Sidney Tasker said that the vehicle was to the best of his knowledge either stolen ore taken without the consent of the owner. He added that further enquiries were to be made. All the man were remanded in custody until Monday.