MURDER OF SON ALLEGED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 251, 22 August 1950, Page 4

MURDER OF SON ALLEGED

CHARGE AGAINST FATHER EVIDENCE IN LOWER COURT (P.A.) WHANGAREX, August 12. On a charge of murdering his son, Leslie Ronald Sbortcliffe, aged five and a half, at Helena Bay in January, 1949, Leslie Ronald Sbortcliffe, aged 30, a labourer, appeared in the Wliangarei Magistrate’s Court to-day. Twentytwo witnesses are being called by the prosecution, and the hearing is expected to occupy two days. The case is being heard by Mr W. Carrol Harley, S.M., and an inquest is being conducted simultaneously by the District Coroner (Mr G. H. Lloyd). The Crown Prosecutor is Mr G. Speight, and Mr L. Brown is appearing for Shorteliffe.

Constable Frank Oldfield Jensen, attached to the criminal registration office at Auckland, described photographs he had taken at Helena Bay after the remains of a child had been found there on June 21. The photographs showed the locality where the discovery had been made-, he said, and also the grave in which the remains had been buried. Two of the photographs were of materials tied in the form of a slip knot handed to him by Dr. Walter Gilmoiir, an Auckland pathologist. Mrs Katerina Monk, of Akerama, Towai, said that Mrs Lily Shorteliffe, who had died on February 5, 1949, was her niece. Mrs Shorteliffe had had four children, and three of them had lived with her at Akerama. They were James, then aged 12, Harry, seven or eight, and a baby, aged six weeks. A fourth child, Les,'was not living there.

The witness said that when Mrs Shorteliffe died she took charge of the three children. After the funeral she and her husband saw Shorteliffe, who said that he wanted the children. She thought he particularly wanted the eldest child. She told him that he was not going to get the three children, who were not his, but he could have the fourth, Les. The witness added: “Shorteliffe was pretty mad, and so was I. He said he was going to get the Whangarei police. He went away after that.” She had not heard anything from the police and she had not again seen Shortcliffe until to-day.

She was living at that time in Wellington. After four months she had returned to Akerama. She had found no sign of Les and had made inquiries in the neighbourhood as well as from ■the Social Security, Maori, and Child Welfare Departments. Then she had asked the Kawakawa police to find him. This was on September 24 or 25 1949. Constable David Clarke Muir, of Kawakawa, said that Shorteliffe had "left for Whalcapara to get a job. On February 14, 1949, he had called at the Kawakawa. police station and said "That. h“is‘wife had died. On February had again called and said he was going to Auckland to work. On September 23, 1949, Mrs Marsh had ■complained that Leslie was missing, and inquiries had been started imme/diately. ’ '/’ v

Half-brother’s Evidence

A half-brother of the dead boy, Stanley James Marsh, aged 13, said that Shortcliffe had treated’Leslie “awful. ’ On one occasion his mother went to telephone the police, but Shortcliffe pulled her back by her hair. Mrs Rosie Potter, of Whakapara, a sister of Mrs Shortcliffe, gave evidence that - Shortcliffe had ill-treated the child Leslie. She said she had seen the child’-s body black and blue and the face swollen. Leslie was afraid of his father, and witness said she had asked Shortcliffe to let her have the boy, but' Shortcliffe had refused. He said he was taking the child to his aunt at Auckland. Colin Robert Shortcliffe, of Ellerslie, a brother of the accused, said that early in 1949 he met his brother in Auckland by accident., He asked his brother about the boy Leslie, but the accused was evasive and said: “If they burn the scrub off in March then I am gone, as I have buried something there.” . . , « Violet Edwards, a machinist, of Auckland, said that when she was living at West Street Colin Shortcliffe was in the same house. She asked the accused when he visited the house if she could have the boy Leslie, and he replied that she could not, as he had killed the boy and would be in gaol for life. ! The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.