CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 142, 15 June 1920, Page 5

CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER.

THE PERCY BARE CASE CONCERNING DEATH OF MR, HORTON. PENROSE MOTOR ACCIDENT. PROSECUTION" OPENS. The young man, Alfred Thomae Percy Dare (23). whom the police accuse of taking a Ford motor car from outside the Opera Houee a.nd driving it so recklessly that he collided with and killed Arthur John Horton, at Church Street, Penrose, on the afternoon of January 2<3 last, now stands hie trial at the Supreme Court, before his Honor Mr. Justice Chapman and a jury of 12. The trial opened in the middle of yesterdny afternoon. .Mr. J. A. Tole, K.C-., prosecutes, and Mr. J. P. Finlay, of Te Kuiti. and Mr. E. W. Inder arc defending Dart.-, who is charged with manslaughter, and alpo with converting to his own use the motor car which he is accused of having been driving at the time. A plia of not guilty was entered, and in his opening address to the jury Mr. Tole traversed tiie circumstances as they appeared from evidence given in the lower court. It was, he said, a cad story of reckless driving, 'wQiieh ended in loss of life. Mr. Horton had been employed in the Wostfleld Freezing Works, and wae cycling from his home at Pentook him, hit his bicycle, and raced on. took him, his his bicycle, and raced on. Mr. Horton was picked up unconscious, and died that evening. Evidently the prir.onor had driven the car to Ponsortby. taken drink tbere. driven it back and "on to Newmaket. had more drink there, and had continued on to Oneliuuga, driving along Manukau Road at a reckless speed that witnesses had estimated as being 40 miles an hour. After this Dare was seen driving very erratically through Mangero. and had been seen" driving at a mtec'iievwis speed through W«stfield. He had turned his car into Church Street, and run into Mr. Horton andjus bicycle. ■After the collision he raced on. After the accident Dare had gone hurriedly away from Auckland, and was up North at Mangonui when arrested. THE EVIDENCE. ! The widow of the deceased victim, Mrs. Horton, described how her husband left home on hie bicycle for work on the afternoon of the accident. He was a careful bike rider. Arthur Evan Pattereou, electrician employed at the Opera House, told how hu had left his Ford five-seater - car. No. 2817, outside the Opera House at about five minutes to one on the afternoon of I January 2(i. and when he tame out at I about two o'clock it was missing. He saw it again the next morning, out at Onehunga. in a damaged condition. Dr. V.illiatn Howard Thomas, of Onehunga. described how he had been c-alled to attend Mr. Horton, who was lying unconscious...in the road. Dr. A. M. Crant eaid he had eeen deceased at the Auckland Hospital, where he had died at ten p.m. on the day of his admission. He had a fracture of the base of the skull, laceration of the brain, and extensive injuries to head and face. DID NOT LIKE THE SPEED. Telling what he knew of the actions of prisoner on tbe fatal afternoon, Norman Valentine Baker said he was passing the gate of the One Tree Hill Park with his i brother Vivian, when a car driven by a J man whom he identified ap accused, came up to them, and the driver asked I theni if they wanted a lift. They got in and -were driven to the first hotel, the Prince Albert, where the car stopped, and accused asked them to drink with him. They refused, and the car started again, and wae pulled up at the next hotel, the Terminus. Here the driver repeated his request. They refused and got out of the car. Aβ they walked away they saw accused moving towards the hotel, and walk down to the Onehunga wharf "% they urere going fishing) accused in the car passed them and he stopped and went into the Manukau Hotel. They had jumped out of the car when it stopped at the Terminus because they had had enough of it. They did not like the speed at which accused was travelling. The barman at the Manukau Hotel, Ivo S. Dennis, eaid a man like the accused in appearance called in for a drink on the afternoon of January 23, but he dec-lined to serve him as he thought the men had had enough drink already. Then the man asked him to go for a ride in his motor car, but witness declined. He could not swear positively that the man was Dare, although ho was like him. Evidence was given by Captain R. H. Gibbon, the harbourmaster at Onehunga, to the effect that he saw the car travelling along Queen Street, Onehunga, and it was going at such a speed that he i took the number. The number on the car was 3517. ~ Arthur Hesketlrdepoßed that at about a quarter to three he was driving a cart along Massey Road, Mange re. A car passed him, running very erratically. Although he swerved on to the edge of | the road the car just missed him by a few inches. There were two men in it, but he could not swear to the identity of the driver. There was a boy on the j footpath of Massey Road, and this boy j I said he had eeen the car number 2817, j and noticed that the tyre on one of the back' wheels had come off. He called out and the car stopped. Two men got out of it, and tried to repair the tyre, but they could not, so they went to a garage about a quarter of a mile further on. THE MATTER OF IDENTITY. This morning, Mr. Findlay crossexamined the boy, who said the ear wae 4J or 5 miles from the Mangerq Bridge ■when he caw it. Leonard Wright' Key, the brother to the other boy saw the car too and believed prisoner wae the driver. Hojphad identified accused as the man at like police station afterwards. His Honor: Have you any doubt about the identity of the driver? "I don't think so, your Honor." John Curtis Foster Payne is part pro- , pi-iotor of the garage where the tyre was repaired, and he thought the time wae about threo o'clock. Both the men were Bomewhat under the influence of , liquor, and a parsing lady refused an offpr of a lift, and he also declined an oflVr of a drink with them. Witness • would not he pinned down to a sworn statement that areuniv? was the driver, • but eaid he wae very Hko him, and to I the bosrt of hig knowledge ho believed' accused was the man. Witness had. 1 mudr> mistaken in identification before, i Hβ 'had selected accused from about half ». dozen as the -man moet likest-he driver, hut the other men were aDI of a markedly different type. Witness ' rerojmised tlin car some- days later? ' To Mr. Findlay: He did not fhrnk they worr so dj"imk that they could' not-drive straight if they "wore.-co , !*

petent drivers. The otiler nun "was shorter and more thick set than accused. The car "was seen and its, erratic course noted by Alfred Henry Burkell. who "was driven right into the fence to escape. He could not recognise the driver. At 1.35 pjn. Constable C. J. Welson had met accused, whom he knew, at the Three Lamps, and Dare had given him a lift in a Ford car doivn College Hill tr> Victoria Street. They stopped and had a drink at the Suffolk. 'Witness refuse,i another at the R»b Roy. Witness toll ihim not to have any more or he would get into trouble, and accused told him he was '"going'to have a. day out." Dare had always been "a decent little fellow." THE At'GTDEXT. Then the evidence swung to the accident itself. John Outram was driving- a cart at Penrose when a car, driven on the wrong- side, passed him at a fair pace coming from Otahuhu. The driver wan fair like accused, but stouter perhaps. He could not identify him. Turning the corner into Church Street between 3.30 und 3.45 his view was blocked by a passing train. Wthen the train toad passed he observed a. man, whom he now 'knew to be Mr. Flynn, with a motor cycle, and a young woman standing on the road. He saw a man lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the road. This was Mr. Horton. A damaged bicycle was lying nearby. To Hr. Finlay: Only' a few minutes could have passed between the accident and .my seeing the car. After Mr. Flynn and ilias Oamp'bell I was the first to gee the car after the accident. Some tendencies of the car were disclosed by Herbert Patrick Martin, of Church Street, Otahuhu, who saw it ewerve across the read after two playinjj dogs. This put the vehicle on its wrong side, and it ran straight at a standing gig, getting very close before it swerved out. Witness recognised prisoner as the driver of this car. He knew him by his face, not by his clothes. There w&s a man driving a three-horse team along the Great South Road, and his name was Robert Ferguson. The caT passed him on ite wrong eide, going at £0 or 25 miles an houT. He saw it turn into Church Street. He came to the scene of the accident, and e'aw Hr. Horton lying , unconscious near a buckled •bike. David Flynn almost saw the accident. He was standing beside his motor cycle in Church Street, waiting. Miss Campbell ira« in the .side-car. He -heard eomething like a thud and a craeh. A few seconds afterwards he looked up and saw a car coming towards him. It gathered speed very quickly, and he saw ilr. Horton's leg on the road behind the car, which hid the rest of the body. Alore of the bodr came into view, and then he paid attention to the car. Its number was A3SI7. The car was now moving at perhaps 20 miles an hour. Witness wae now in the middle of the road, and raised his hand!, and then pointed to tfhe 'body on the road. He raised his hand again, but the driver did not stop, and witness stepped away to let it pass on its wrong side. Then he called, but the car went on. He described the finding of the body, and measures he had taken afterwards. The young lady, Stella May Campbell, typist, -of Newton, generally corroborated this.