SEVEN YEARS FOR PERJURY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 27

SEVEN YEARS FOR PERJURY.

Margaret Reardon -was convicted afterwards of wilful and corrupt perjury at the Supreme Court, Auckland, on September 1, IS4S. for having given evidence to support a charge against a respectable resident oi Devonport of the murder of Lieutenant Snow, his wife and daughter. The Chief Justice, in sentencing Marsaret Eeardon to seven years' penal servitude, said: "You have ueen convicted of perjury in the worst form, for the false testimony which you knowingly and deliberately bore tended to £x the charge of murder upon an innocent man. It is true that you made some reparation for your crime by openly confessing it in the face of the Court a: the Criminal Assize." The "Anglo-Maori Warder* had the following paragraph about the imprisonment of the woman: "Marcaret Reardon was convicted of wilful and corrupt perjury. Without doubt the unhappy woman richly deserved her punishment., vet we car.net heip regretting that she should ever have been put on trial at all. Under all the circumstances of the- case, we believe it t" , hsv§ a fclso move. Am^ns , the many objections to it, there is one which must occur to ah— that her evidence, which might possibly "-..-. require--], is now entirely lost. The mystery of Lieutenant Snow's murder is still far from having been cleared many still Ix-lic-ve there were more actors tliau one upon the scene, who?* would cow }>c rendered doubly diScuit. It is useless to say that her evidence would be unworthy of credence: it would at least by a? good as v "hen it convicted Burns."' It oe.lv remains to add that Margaret Eeardcn died in the craoh (To be continued next Saturday.)