MURDER CHARGE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 130, 17 March 1950, Page 4

MURDER CHARGE

EVIDENCE IN 'LOWER ;S;; "..COURT HEARING S: ; DEATH OF FACTORY BACTERIOLOGIST (P.A.) WHAKATANE, March IG. Charged with murdering Frederick Stanley Ilodson, a bacteriologist, of Edgecumbe, whose\body was found buried in what appeared to be a heap of rubbish in scrub at Onepu, on February 14, Chesley Lachlan Brooks, aged 20, a seaman and labourer, to-day appeared in the Magistrate’s Court at Whakatane. Mr E. L. Walton, S.M., was on the Bench. The police evidence was presented by the Crown Prosecutor (Mf V. R. Meredith) and Mr R. K. Davison is appearing for Brooks. Mrs Florence Maud Ilodson said that on February 13 her husband left home at Lake Rotoma to go to work at Edgecumbe, taking liis own car. She notified the police at Whakatane when her husband was not back the next morning. She had never heard him speak of Brooks as an acquaintance. Arthur J. L. Sheat, a clerk, who worked in the office next door to Hodson’s laboratory at the'Rangitaiki Plains J)airy Factory, said Hodson did not appear there on February i 3. Henry Anderson, a carrier, of Edgecunibe, said that about 10 a.m. on February 13, while on his way to the Onepu Springs Road, which turns off Grieves Road, he saw Brooks crossing the latter road on foot near the main highway. Recognising him, the witness waved and called, “Hello, Sinbad,” Cthe nickname by which he knew Brooks). Returning about a quarter of an hour later along Grieves Road he did not see Brooks again but noticed a car backed in the scrub off the right-hand side of the road about yards front the niain highway, added Anderson. The car looked familiar, but he did not recognise it positively. When he heard next day that Hodson and his

car were missing, it came to his mind that the car he had seen was Hodson’s. He remembered he had not seen it on the, way back, and got in touch Avith the police. With Constable R ; F. Julian, of Whakatane, he went oil the evening of February 14 to near where he had seen the car. In the scrub they found a body under a heap of tins, earth, and scrub. 'i Purchase of Suitcase A Berth Onslow Turner, a saddler, of 'Peilciihg, "said Brooks came to his shop nn.JFebrua.ry 15 and bought a suitcase. Brooks said he was going to catch the boat, at Wellington. Dr. Walter Gilmour, the Auckland pathologist, who inspected Hodson’s body, said it was, when, uncovered, fully clad and there was a gunshot wound in the chest under the left lapel of the coat. The post-mortdm examination disclosed extensive heart injuries and some pellets of shot, indicating almost instantaneous death. That the shot had not spread much suggested that the weapon had been fired almost straight in front. Maureen Eivers, a clerk employed at Teteko Motors, said that on the morning of February, Brooks, who was well known to her by sight, came to the garage in a small bluey-grey car and bought five gallons of petrol. The car now in possession of the police was the same size and cq)our and had the same type of tank cap as the car Brooks drove on February 13.

Donald SteAvart Baty, a farm labourer, of AAvakeri, said that in early January this year he had exchanged a 12-gauge single-barrelled shotgun for a double-barrelled gun Brooks had. He identified the cut-doAvn gun produced by the police as part of the one he used to oAvn. He gave Brooks three boxes of cartridges similar to those produced in Court. Walter Steenson, a labourer, who occupied the next hut to Brooks at the Edgecumbe sub-station, where both Avorked, said that to his knoAVledge Brooks had owned a single-bar ; relied gun and a .303 rifle just, before he Avent aAvay. About 4 a.m. on February 13 he saAV a light in Brooks’s hut. He heard a door bang and then the light Avent out. He did not see Brooks after that. - , Alleged Statement Detective-Sergeant Fergus Scott, of Wellington, described the search for Brooks in Wellington and his ultimate discovery at the Y.M.C.A. hostel in Willis Street," Avhere he Avas staying under the name of r TI. Farrabee.” When accosted,- Brooks admitted his identity and said that “Farrabee” was “the name I Avas trying to get away under.”

Asked the nature of the trouble, Brooks said, “I wanted to get Moses.” He then made a statement (produced), to the admission of which as evidence Mr Davison made formal objection. In it Brooks claimed that the malice of a titter named Moses had driven him to think of the plan of murdering him when he came back from his holiday. “I thought I would, have to get a car to save people's lives during thggunflght to get away into the hills and bush and wait for the police,” he is' alleged to have said. The ■ statement said that he had wakened up dreaming about Moses on the .morhing of February 13, packed his gear and gone off to Onepu. He stood .at the road junction for some hours: thinking of Moses. About 10 he thought of calling it off and gethfl to Teteko. r , He signalled an approaching car and- when it -stopped bp, saw Moses in the place of the driver and shot him with a sawnoff shotgun. . When the smoke cleared he saw an elderly man witli a hole in his-.chest. - Realising .that the victim was dead, Brooks allegedly said that he-drove the car up a side road and "into the scrub, bulled the body and made off in the car, getting petrol at Te Teko, and heading for Rotorua. He had 'abandoned the gun, but still had a .303 rifle and a bandolier of shotgun cartridges. He lunched at Rotorua and later at the bridge between Turangi and Rangipo he took off the number plates and threw them in the fiver. He gathered his gear together and headed for the bush on the hillside, where he camped two nights. Then, abandoning the rifle and ammunition, he went back to the road on Wednesday morning, and was given a lift to Feilding, where he sold his boots and bought a suitcase, before going to Palmerston North, where he spent the night at a hotel. He went on to Wellington by bus next day. Brooks pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court at Auckland for trial.