TWO IN WEEK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 304, 26 December 1939, Page 5

TWO IN WEEK.

DEATH SENTENCES.

MERCY RECOMMENDATIONS.

METALWORKER AND SEAMAIf.

(Trora Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 21

There were painful scenes in the Central Criminal Court when John Leitch, 23, metalworker, was sentenced to death for a. capital offcnce against ■ girl of 18. The Crown's case was that the girl, along with other girls and youths, had attended a party at Leitch's home to celebrate the fart that the Crown had ' entered a nolle prosequi in respect of another charge against Leitch of a capital assault on another girl, on which charge Leitch had been committed for "trial from the police court. The girl concerned in the charge on vhirrh Leitch was sentenced this week sairl that because of his conduct to her at the party she decided to leave, butj he followed her and caught up to her as she was having coffee in a hamburger shop. When she left the shop he accompanied her, and when they reached the laneway he dragged her into

it. and assaulted her. Leitch's defence was that she had consented. It was Leitch's second trial on the charge, the first jury having failed to Rgree. The jury found him guilty, with a recommendation to mercy on account of hia age. The judge said their recommendation would receive full consideration from Cabinet, but as far as he was concerned the law compelled him to pronounce sentence. When asked in the usual way if he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed on liim. Leitch said he was innocent and that evidence by the police as to marks in the lane was false. There were nrirw from a woman in the Court when the death sentence was pronounced. Turning round in the dock Leitcih shouted to Detective Sabine: "Sabine, one day you will pay for this. JThefe's a day of reckoning for every-

one." Then turning round -toward* the people in court, Leitcb called out to a woman relative, "Tell mum I'm not guilty." I Leitch's mother had been waiting for the jury's verdict in an ante room near the court. When told of it she collapsed! into fits of hysteria and fainting and' was taken to hospital for treatment. The girl concerned in the case sat weep-1 ing with a woman companion in a room in the courthouse for nearly an hour after Leitch had been sentenced. She was still there when Mrs. Leitch was brought back from the hospital, and Mrs. Leitch went up to speak to her, but was led away by the police.

Seaman Also Sentenced.

j The death sentence was pronounced the second time this week in the Central Criminal Court on John Thomas Myers. 36, seaman, who was found guilty of having murdered Robert James Rowlinson at Darlinghurst on November 10. The case for the Crown was conducted by the State Attorney-General (Sir Henry Manning), who said later that he considered it one of the duties of au Attorney General to appear for the Crown occasionally. The last AttorneyGeneral who aid so was Sir Thomas Bavin in 1925.

According to the evidence Myers had been living with Mrs. Anne Middler, aj waitress, but she had left him and wasj living with Rowlinson. According to her this was what occurred on November 16: "I went into my flat with Rowlinson about 11 p.m. Myers came rushing in before I could close the door and said to Rowlinson, 'This is Mrs. Myers.' I said, 'I am not Mrs. Myers.' Myers counted two and then fired a revolver he had in his hand at Rowlinson, who dropped back on to the bed. Myers then turned the gun at me, but it did not go off. He pushed me out of the room and I ran down the stairs. I heard another shot fired and ran into the house next door."

From the witness box Myers made the following statement on oath: "I had been living with Mrs. Middler for two years.' I left her last July, but visited her flat to «ot some clothes. There was a man with her. Ik' said, 'Who is this mil"l' I replied, 'Only t>e mug who took r this woman for a wife.' The man ran at nje. He struck me in the stomach and the face. 1 was knocked unconscious. When I came to I saw a revolver on a table. 1 picked it up. The man ran

jrt m--> acrsin. an.l i sivjt him. The man .fell back on a bed. Mrs. Middler rushed! | out of the room. I caught her in the J corridor. As I caught Mrs. Middler; .someone seized me from behind, and Ij was again knocked unconscious."

I The jury recommended Myers to [mercy, so it is unlikely that the death sentence will be carried out. The death I sentence is seldom carried out on a charge such as that of which Leitchl was convicted, and as he also was recommended to mercy the death sentence is not. likely to be carried out in his case either.