ALLEGED MURDER OF DAUGHTER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 140, 25 March 1948, Page 2

ALLEGED MURDER OF DAUGHTER

Charge Against Woman PRELIMINARY HEARING \ (P.A. ) ’ OHAKUNE, March 24. Margaret Mary Theresa Loo was charged before Messrs H. F. Li. Delamer and G. Sandford, Justices of the Peace, to-day, with the murder of her four and a half-year-old daughter, Gale Kingi, on December 3, 1947. Thirteen of 17 witnesses were heard, and the case was adjourned until to-morrow morning.

On the day Gale went to hospital his mother smacked Gale twice with her hand, said Robert Kingi, the young son of accused. Later he saw Gale lying on a bed. She had hurt her'head by falling on the concrete outside the back door. His mother did nothing to stop the bleeding and for the rest of the day Gale did not speak, cry, or moan; she just lay there. He did not see his mpther hit-her with anything 1 but her hand.

Rose Ann Bergereon said that between 7 and 7.30 p.m. on December 3 accused called and asked to use the telephone to call a doctor, saying that her little girl had fallen in trying’ to take a rocking-horse outside, and had cut her head. She said the accident occurred at about 4 p.m., and when asked why she had not come sooner,, she replied that she could not leave the girl. Mrs Loo did not seem as fond of the girl as she was of the boy Robert, said a neighbour, Elizabeth O’Connor. Sometimes Gale had bruises on her body and on one occasion she had a black eye. Witness thought Mrs Loo bad tempered, but the children, who were very well mannered, did not seem afraid of her.

Doctor’s Evidence

An examination at his surgery showed that the child was deeply unconscious, said Lewis Edmund Jordan, a doctor, of Ohakune. Her condition was grave. He found an inch-long depression on the top of the skull. When questioned, Mrs Loo said that the child had stumbled on the stairs while carrying her rocking-horse. When he shaved the child’s head in preparation for an operation he found a second injury and an abrasion, negligible from a medical viewpoint. The injuries could have been caused by a blow or by coming into contact with a round object. “The blow must have been a severe one and it would be difficult to believe that a light child would cause Guch an injury by falling down two steps,” said Dr. Jordan. He did not think the injury could have been caused by contact with tlis bars of a chair. While the doctor was out of the surgery accused repeated part of her explanation, and asked if the doctor would believe it, said Gladys Edith Garmonsway, receptionist to Dr. Jordan.

John Harle Mclntyre, doctor, of Greymouth and formerly of Raetihi, said it was conceivable that the injury could have been caused by falling on to the sharp edge of concrete steps. He would have expected the skin to be broken by the sharp edge, but this did not always occur in such circumstances. The injury could have been caused by the child's falling against a chair.

View of Pathologist

It was clear from the medical examination by the two doctors that the child had suffered severe cerebral injuries, said Phillip Patrick Lynch, pathologist, Wellington. Considering the location of the depreseed area on the top of the skull, he thought it extremely improbable that it could have been caused by an accidental fall, even if the child had pitched forward violently. The descriptions given by. the two previous medical witnesses were more consistent with direct violence. Accused told her that the child was to be adopted but that adoption had not been legalised, said Marguerite Muemann, formerly a nurse at the Raetihi Hospital. Accused said that she had asked the child to move a chair, and in pulling it towards her the child had fallen over backwards with the chair on top of her. She might have mentioned a rocking chair, but no reference was made to a rocking horse. “It was so severe I could not stand it,” stated William Thomas Blackmore, formerly of Makaranui, in describing a thrashing given to the girl by accused. “I was going to go over and give her some of her own medicine, but I changed my mind.” Her attitude to the children was “a little over the fence,” said witness. She was more harsh with the girl than with the boy. When she appeared the children cringed. They were afraid of her. On one occasion when Gale stayed at his place his wife found when bathing the child that a section of the scalp had come away. He complained to the welfare officer at Ohakune.