PENROSE FATALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 41, 17 February 1920, Page 7

PENROSE FATALITY.

DARE SENT FOR TRIAL. OX CIIARUK OF Ml/RDER. The hearing of the charges of murder »nd of unlawfully converting to his own use and damaging a motor car belonging to A. K. I'atterson, continued against Arthur Thomas I'ercy Dare (23), yesterday afternoon before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M. Mr. J. K. Wilson wiw also on the ■Bench as Coroner, considering the evidence us it affected the inquest findiii" on the dentil of Arthur .Mm Horton, who <li (,| l I* the result of injuries received by collision with a motor car when he was cycling at Penrose on January iihh.

The evidence was that of a series of witnesses who had noticed the erratic course of the motor car at Onehunga, Otnhuhn and Penrose, with a view to i-omir.-tim; the car with accused as driver nnd also with a car (A 2817) taken from Wlleslcy Sircct in Auckland between 1 p.m. ami - p.m. on .January 26. ConFtnMe Conrad Wnlson stated "that at 1.40 p.m., being then in plain clothes, he was given a lift from the Three Lamps. Ponsonby, to Holison Street by accused, whom he knew. Accused was in a grey painted Ford car with a narrow gold Sand round it. and when asked where he cot it, SB id he hud the loan of it from x garage where his motor van was laid tip for repairs. Between 3 and 3.30 p.m. Herbert Martin saw a grey painted Ford car driven in tnc street n't Otahuhu and swervp first as if to try to overrun two dogs in the street, and then keep the wrong side of the street and brush a cart in which a woman wae sitting, the act 'being apparently an attempt to frighten the woman. Shortly after 3 p.m. Alfred If. Hurkill, Government meat inspector, cycling from Westfield to Otahuhu. was missed by inches by an erratically driven Ford car, painted grey. At 3.20 p.m. Robert Ferguson, driving a butcher's wagon on the CJreat South Road, was passed on tho wrong side of the road by a 'grey-painted Ford car, with a gold band, and one of his horse* was nearly hit by the car. Ferguson stated he then saw a cyclist approachinj in tlio distance, but lost sight of the cyclist and the car owing to a dip iv thp rnnd. When he got out of the dip thp cy.-list wns lying on the road, and the , car was out of sight. When he got to the cyclist others had got there before him". •lohii Oiltram, farmer of East Tamaki, said be was driving from Onehunga, and was fretting near Penrose when lie met a motor cur wlik - ii persisted in kcepinjj r to the wrong side of the road, and he had to pull out to let it past. All the witnesses marked that there weretwoyoung men in the car, of which each gave evidence.

David Flynn, engineer, of Xewton, Ftnted that he was cycling on Church Bond, Penrose, with a motor cycle and side car on January 26th, and shortly after S p.m. he luul stopped the car outside a house there to wait for a friend. His attention was suddenly attracted by the sound of a heavy thud alon.o; the Toad, and looking up. lie saw a motor car coming towards liim at about 20 miles an hour. As it pot nearer he noticed that a man was lyinp on the road further hack, and he stepped into the road and "held up his hand as a signal for the enr to stop. The car was swerved past him and went on at a rate of about 25 mile* an hour. He took the number of the car: it was A2SIT. On going to the man who was lying on the road he found him unconscious, with serious wounds on the face and head, and a bicycle was ten to fifteen yards away. He summoned medical asistance, and the man, who proved to be Arthur John Horton, was removed to the hospital where he subsequently died.

.Stella Campbell, who was with the previous witness said she heard the breaking of glass like the smashing of a wind-screen, and saw the car and cyclist as descrilx>d by David Flynn. Kathleen Ecclee, a girl resident at Onehunga, testified that she saw the motor car, subsequently identified as Patterson's, standing in front of the Foresters' Hall in Onehunga, with a broken windscreen, at 4 p.m. on January 26.

Mr. Inder, for accused, put in a plea for the reduction of the murder charge to manslaughter, but his Worship declined to reduce the charge at this stage.

Accused pleaded not guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for