SLASHER SHOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 259, 1 November 1937, Page 5

SLASHER SHOT.

WOMAN FOR TRIAL. SELF-DEFENCE PLEA. DID MOT DENY KILLING. (From Our Own Correspondent, t SYDNEY, October 28. On October 8 a man named Alfred Ma ley was found lying in the side channel in Butt Street. Surry Hills, unconscious, and Iwaiing marks of several bullets. He was taken to Sydney Hospital and soon died. At the inquest the doctors who had examined him told the coroner that lie had three or four wound* in his head and left arm, and as one bullet was! embedded in his brain nothing could have been done to save him. But the coroner learned more about the circumstances of Maley's death from the other witnesses. Ma ley was well known to the police. and had just completed a sentence of jtwo years for slashing a woman with a [razor. It seems that after he had finished his last term he went to live in Crown Street. Surry Hills, with one Maisie Matthews, a handsome girl who seems to have felt some sort of affection or loyalty for him. Visit My Friends. She had been with him about a fortnight when, on the evening of Octol>er 7, two friends came to see her—Mrs. Iris Webber and Kathleen McLennan— both apparently like Maisie Matthew*, known to the police. The girl Matthews wished to go out with the others, but when she suggested this Maley threatened to throw her out of the window, and struck her on the head with a dUh. She told the coroner that she was afraid of him—he 6ft in height and very violent when drunk, and she decided to leave him. She got out of the house and found her way to Mrs. Webber's, staying there for the night. The next morning Maisie told Mrs. Web 1 ' r that she wa* afraid

that Ma lev would come round and attack i her. Mrs. Webber, pointing to a gun i which stood in the corner, said "Protect I yourself. Maisie —you are only a woman." I At about 8 o'clock Ma ley came to the, house and demanded to see Maisie. Mrs. \ Webber, at the girl's request, refused to' admit him. but he forced his way in. I struck at the woman with a razor j and j hurled her into the next room. He then j tinned toward Maisie. evidently meaning! to attack her. Intruder Warned. Mrs. Webber appeared at the open ' door holding her rifle. "Go away.*' she said to Mailey, "I don't want to use this." He tried to snatch the pun and she tired three times in quick succession.! Maley fell heavily, but when the woman helped him up. bathed his face and {rave, him water, he seemed to recover. While! he was lying ,>n a stretcher in the next ; room a barman named Morris came to! the house and the iritis told him that Iris (Mrs. WeluVrl had shot "Slim": | (Maley). Morris advised Maley to come: I away, and Maley got „p a „,i walked; [down the street. ; As they went along Maley said to; Morris that if ever he got near "that woman" again (meaning Maisie Matthews) he would "chop her in halves"—: illustrating his intentions with his razor clutched in his hand. Collapsed in Gutter. A little further on Maley—who had: walked nearly a quarter of a m ie with! a bullet through his brain—collapsed in the gutter. There was not much more than this! that the women could say to elucidate j the crime. Maisie Matthews told the; coroner that she feared Maley. that he! had struck her and threatened to kill her. and that she had left him because I she was afraid to stay. j I Mrs. Webber made no attempt to I ideny the shooting, protesting that she] acted in defence of herself and the other' ■rirls. This plea of self-defence was! submitted to the coroner with consider! able force by Mrs. Webber's legal! advirvr. Mrs. Webber had put the case for j herself ably enough in conversation! with the second girl McLennan. who 1 was also called a-= a witness. She testified that after the shoot in? she tried to persuade Tris to hide the gun. But Mrs. Webber made answer, "I onlyl

defended myself. Did I have to go through the same thing as that woman he got two years over?"' The plea of self-defence put forward so courageously seems to have impressed the coroner, but in summing up his view* he pointed out that he could only give a verdict in accordance with the , facts submitted to him, and that he | could not "usurp the functions of a i jury" by deciding whether the extenuating circumstances should exonerate ' Mrs. Webber in the eyes of the law. I He committed her for trial on a charge 'of murder.