THE MAREO CASE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23940, 6 May 1943, Page 3

THE MAREO CASE

* PETITION FOR RELEASE A petition containing 177 signatures, including those of several physicians, has been forwarded to the Prisons Board through the Controller-General of Prisons, asking for the release of Eric Mareo, who has served sevlen years of a life sentence. Mareo was charged with the murder of his wife. Thelma Clarice Mareo, after her death in Auckland from an overdose of veronal in 1935, and eventually he stood two trials on a capital charge. He was found guilty, and sentenced tc spend the remainder of his life in prison. The petitioners point out that since Mareo’s trial a report on the medical aspect of the trial has been furnished by Sir William Willcox, an eminent English expert on toxicology, which “throws grave doubts upon the conclusions drawn from the medical evidence given at the trials,’’ and upon which Mareo was convicted. It is suggested that there is now serious doubt as to whether Mareo could have administered the poison at the time Mrs Mareo was alleged to have taken it.

A petition was recently presented to Parliament on behalf, of Mareo. The Select Committee to which it was referred reported that it had no recommendation to make. The petitioners insist, however* that as the Select Committee was composed of laymen they were not in a position to value and estimate the medical aspects of the case. If the petition had been considered by a committee of competent medical men. it is stated, they wodld have been able to give proper weight to the Willcox report. The Prisons Board is now asked to recommend the release of Mareo to, the Governor-General (Sir Cyril Newall), so that he may be discharged' from gaol and allowed to start life afresh.