YOUNG MAN PLACED ON PROBATION

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22240, 3 November 1937, Page 8

YOUNG MAN PLACED ON PROBATION

POINTED A GUN AT HIS WIFE

(PEES 3 ASSOCIATION TBLEGHAM.)

WANGANUI, November 2. In the Supreme Court to-day a jury, after half an hour's retirement, found Kenneth St. Albans Hodgson, aged 28. ] guilty of pointing a gun at his wife] in such a way as to alarm and intimidate her. It added a rider that] he acted under, extreme provocation. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, describing the act of the accused as a stupid one, admitted him to probation for a period of 12 months. The accused is also to pay the cost of the prosecution, £32. The case arose out of incidents which occurred at Raetihi on the afternoon of August 25. The accused, according to the evidence, suspicious and jealous of his wife's conduct, went into the room with a loaded gun. She advanced towards him, caught the gun by the barrel, and then pressed the trigger herself, either by pressing his finger, which was on it, or by pressing it direct. The gun was discharged, the charge hitting a cushion. The accused then surrendered the weapon to his wife, who threw it out of a window. The accused was charged with attempted murder and two other counts, one of pointing the weapon with intent to alarm and annoy, and the other of common assault. The jury rejected the major count and that of common assault. In passing sentence, his Honour said that he hoped that both the accused and his wife realised that they had acted stupidly and that the wife had been indiscreet. His Honour was of the opinion that there was nothing wrong with what she had done, other than that she had acted stupidly and indiscreetly.