FIVE YEARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 281, 28 November 1938, Page 3

FIVE YEARS.

GIRL SENTENCED. MANSLAUGHTER VERDICT. YOTTNG MAN SHOT DEAD. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 24. Beatrice May McAuliffe, the girl of 18 who, at Pennant Hills, shot dead Paul James C'owell, aged 22, was sentenced by Mr. Justice Halse Rogers this week to five years' light labour, and told that if the prison authorities made a favourable report on her conduct she would be entitled to petition for release at the end of tlivee years and he would recommend her. The reason for this •Apparent cxtraovclnarv clemency was the I fact in finding the girl guilty only of I manslaughter, the jury had evidently (accepted her story that she had intended only to frighten"Cowell with the gun. The girl admitted that she had been out with Co well for two nights, spending the first with friends at Prospect and the second in his car. She said that when they went home to her parents' place at Pennant Hills, Cowell refused to leave her alone and she then pot the idea of getting a pea rifle, which she knew was in the house, and trying to frighten him. Two Statements. She said that she asked her mother if the rifle was loaded and her mother said '"No." In one statement to the police she said that somehow or other her hand went on the trigger an d she pulled it, but in another statement she said that when she pointed the rifle at Cowell he moved an arm and she must have pulled the trigger. In evidence, the girl said that after she had gone to the house and got the gun, and been told by her mother that it was not loaded, she went back to Cowell, who was leaning 071 the pate post, and said to hini: "I don't want you hanging round here any more. You have got me into enough trouble." Cowell moved a hand up and took a step forward as if to grab the gun. This action caused her to jerk back and seize the gun more tightly. There was a report and the gun went off. " Extraordinary Case." The judge said it was an extraordinary case. No motive had been adduced by the Crown, but the Crown was not required to show motive, as it could not tell what was operating in a ! person's mind. The £>irl was the only person who knew what had really taken I place, and the Crown's argument was ! that she had not told the whole truth. | If the jury came to the view that the pirl had acted recklessly in pointing the ride at Cowell, any involuntary movement by him to reach for the rifle would nof alter the right of the jury, if it so wished, to find the girl guilty of manslaughter. The jury was out only half an hour before returning with the verdict of manslaughter. When asked in the usual way if she had anything to say before sentence was passed, the girl, who had remained quite calm throughout her trial, said she did not deserve any sentence as she had merely pointed the gun at Cowell to force him to leave her alone, and had been told by her mother that the gun was not loaded.