CRIMINAL SESSION

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 253, 25 October 1932, Page 5

CRIMINAL SESSION

SUPREME COURT OPENS.

UNUSUAL MURDER CHARGE.

COMMENT BY THE JUDGE

QUESTION OF INTENT.

Twenty-four caeee, involving 27 prisoners, are for trial at the fourth criminal session of the Supreme Court, which opened to-day.

There are two charges of murder, one a <rainst a half-caste Maori boy named Heta Fred Gardner (a retrial), and the other against George Frederick Hewer, described as a doctor. A charge of administering poison is laid against Elspeth Ktvr, a widow, aged 45.

Jlr. Justice Smith delivered the ehai-ge to the grand jury, which was empanelled as follows: —Messrs. W. M. Jackson (foreman), J. F. Wright, H. S. Hawkes, R. T. Sawers, J. R. Rendell, W. S. Ralph, H. N. Pountney, K. H. Partridge, H. C. McCoy, E. E. Kitchener, F. A. °Katterfeldt, J. P. Henderson, H. E. Gillcspie, H. McK. Geddi.s, X. French, G. Court, J. Marsden Caughey, H. Bray, VV. P. Aitken, F. G. Baskett and F. G. Binney. ,

Mr. Justice Smith presided this morning, Mr. Justice Herdman being occupied in°hearing an appeal caee.

"Very Peculiar."

His Honor, in hie charge to the grand jury, dealt at some length with the circumstances of the case in which George Frederick Hewer, described as a doctor, is charged with unlawfully using an instrument upon a young woman, and also with the crime of murdering her child. His Honor said the case was a very peculiar one indeed, the charge of murder being in respect of an infant child, the eame child concerning which a charge of procuring abortion was made against the same prisoner. Our criminal code laid it down that the killing of such a child was homicide if the infant died of injuries received before, during, or after birth. In this case the evidence showed that, after the birth of the child, it received the most complete attention and care, accursed directing tliat it should be sent to St. Helens Hospital. Notwithstanding this, the child died some hours after birth. His Honor said that to obtain a conviction it would be necessary to show that accused committed an unlawful act with the intent lihat the child, if born alive, should die. ■ Charge Against Solicitor. Dealing with the case in which Charles Stewart Leahy, a solicitor, is charged With theft, his Honor naid the primal facie evidence wae that accused received the money for one purpose and applied ii to another. If that was done witli knowledge, that in itself involved fraud. True Bills Returned. The grand jury returned true bills in the cases of Charles Sommerville Vincent (breaking and entering), George H. B. Morgan (theft from dwelling house), Laurie Maish (theft, indecent assault and attempted rape), Francis Edward Pinker, Charles Siinelhay and Francis W. H. Jeeves (theft of motor car and breaking and entering dwelling house), Frederick Morrison (indecent assault on male), Tuaka Komene (attempting to injure with explosive), Darcy Robert McDevitt and James Harold O'Brien (breaking and entering shop by night), and Ernest Cheadle (perjury). The other cases remain to be considered.