DEFENCE OPENS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 252, 24 October 1945, Page 6

DEFENCE OPENS

CHARGE OF MURDER DEATH OF WOMAN O.C. HAMILTON, this day. i A defence that the accused had received much provocation was advanced by Mr. W. W. King, of i Auckland, when the trial was con- i tinued in the Supreme Court to-day | before Mr. Justice Fair of Keith Bennett (26), motor driver, who is accused of murdering a married woman, Lois Ypres Fitzgerald, aged 25, at Te ICuiti in the early morning of July 22. For the Crown, Mr. Gillies said that accused served for four years in the Middle East and returned early • this year. He settled in Te Kuiti, where he met deceased, whose relationship with her husband, a prisoner of war, had virtually ceased. Accused had planned to marry her when she received her I divorce. However, another spldier.l Darcy Tangihaere, became friendly with her and she went out with him i in preference to accused. ! Accused showed distress for some time, Mr. Gillies continued, but. eventually said he was reconciled to his loss. He played football on July 21 and in the evening went to" a party. Tangihaere and deceased went to the pictures that evening and later attended a dance before returning to deceased's home. The couple were standing near a hedge when accused approached them. He had a gun in his hand and started to talk to the couple. Tangihaere endeavoured to get into a position to grapple with accused when a shot was fired and Mrs. Fitzgerald fell to the ground. She was wounded m the chest. Accused then gave himself up to the police. Mrs. Fitzgerald was rushed to hospital, but died soon afterward. - . Charles William Hetet, father of deceased, said that his daughter was 25 years of age. She was an eighthcaste Maori. She was married m 1938 and had two children. Her husband was taken prisoner in Crete and letters between them ceased. Severe Chest Wounds Dr. L. R. De Castro, of Te Kuiti, said that death was caused by severe wounds in the chest. Witness said that at the time accused was suffering from jaundice, which was a depressing disease. A Maori, Darcy Tangihaere, aged 27, gave evidence that he was a married man living apart from his wife. He formed an association with deceased, and on the night of July 21 he took her to the pictures and later to supper. They then went to her home and were sitting behind a hedge when they heard accused call to them. As they approached him he told them that he had come "to do them both in" and himself as well. Witness said he took his coat off and called on accused to.be a man and have it out. Accused later repeated that he was determined to do what he had come to do. The shot was then fired. Witness said he tried to catch accused, but failed. Betty Esme Hetet, aged 19, of Te Kuiti, sister of Mrs; Fitzgerald, said she was employed as a waitress in the same cafe as her sister. Bennett, who was introduced to her early in April, when he was in Army uniform, was almost daily in Mrs. Fitzgerald's company until about the end of June, when they parted. Her sister kept company thereafter with Darcy. Tangihaere-for— three weeks before her death. " On-Saturday; July 21, witness s~aW "Bennett outside the cafe about 5 o'clock. Addressing the Jury, Mr. King said accused was very dejected on the nieht-of July 22, but his attitude was .that he would , take what was coming. Accused didn't want anyone to appear for him at the trial. As airesult of conversation with him, he considered him now a different man'! from what he was that night. He said it was very difficult to reconstruct the scene which took place by Andlrson's hedge, and the emotions which were aroused in the accused when' he found deceased there with Tangihaere. . . "While our sympathies-go out to the relatives of the unfortunate girl, said" Mr. King, "it is necessary to investigate the circumstances, ana see -what the accused says, and find out "what provocation he had. the defence is that he received much provocation. "Between getting the gun and the happening one hour elapsed, said Mr., King. "Accused had walked with a friend a certain distance, then back to Kelly's house, where he was staving, for ah hour. He then decided he would go to see the deceased girl, to see if he could make it up with her. after about one week of not going together. "Not Rational" The accused knew that Tangihaere was a married man. He knew also that Lois knew that Tangihaere a married man. He went back to Kelly's house and got the gun, which was kept in a wardrobe, and got three cartridges.from on top of the wardrobe and went back. Mr. King maintained that the taking of three cartridges only was not the action of a rational man, who would have taken more than three in case of a -hitch. , . x ■ , ' . "It was only by his act that we are'able to see the state of his mind." said Mr. King. "He himself has very little recollection of what really occurred. When he returned with the gun they practically persuaded him not to use it." The Accused's Story " Keith Bennett said that prior to going -into camp he was the driver of abactor. into camp on October 3. 1940, at the age of 21, having volnnteered. H'e left for overseas in February, 1941, as a private, receiving sergeant's stripes on active service, and had had experience in a machine gun fighting unit. He had a near miss during his service from a shell, which exploded about six feet away and knocked him unconscious, leaving his nerves badly shaken afterwards. Accused said he later became deaf. He was in action at El Alamein, and later- in Italy with the Maori Battalion. About two days before the break through at El Alamein, he was taken ill with jaundice, and was sent fto hospital. Before properly recovering, he had a relapse. He returned to New Zealand in January this vear, graded temporarily unfit due to his deafness. In April,-he was regraded 3b and received 15/ a week pension. On. his discharge, he went to Te Kuiti early in April, and there met Lois Hetet, whom he knew first by that name. He got to know her better later, when she told him that she had been married and that a divorce was then going through. She had once shown him the divorce papers, which had been issued in Wanganui. They had had very happy times together. There was talk between them of getting,, married after her divorce had been made ;; ' XProceeiiirig.V