WOMAN CHARGED WITH MURDER

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25435, 5 March 1948, Page 5

WOMAN CHARGED WITH MURDER

ONE TREE HILL CASE LAST WITNESS FOR THE CROWN (P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 4. An indication that if the jury were agreeable the Court would sit on Saturday to complete the retrial of Mrs Pansy Louise Frances Haskell, aged 49, was given by Mr Justice Finlay before the adjournment to-day. Detective-Sergeant W. R. Fell, last of the Crown’s 44 witnesses, will give further evidence in the morning. Accused is charged with the murder of Mrs Gladys Ruth Rusden at net home in Horotutu road, One Tree Hill, oh June 5. John Benjamin Campbell, of Te Kawa road. One Tree Hill, said his house was 75 yards from the corner of Horotutu road, where the Rusdens lived. When he was getting his milk billy from the front gate between 6.55 «a.m. and 7 a.m. on June 5 he saw a person dressed in black walking down the other side of Te Kawa road from Horotutu road.

“This person had a very peculiar walk,” witness continued. “It passed through my mind that it was a lady dressed up in man’s clothes.” Witness said he saw the same person dressed in women’s clothes at the Avondale races on July 9. He came to the conclusion it was the same person by the walk and the way she held her head. Mr V. R. Meredith (for the Crown): Who was the person? Witness: It was the person in the dock. Cross-examined by Mr M. Robinson, witness said that from what he could see the person on June 5 was wearing women’s shoes. He was quite clear on that. It was not dark. He could not see any of the person’s features. Mrs Lavinia Margaret Stubbs, of Kowhatu road, said she was on duty as night sister at Cornwall Hospital on June 5. As she was in Kowhatu road on her way home at 8.45 a.m. she thought she saw a blind man coming toward her on the same side of the street. It struck her that it was a woman dressed in man's clothes. The person had on a black, loosefitting woollen top coat and black trousers with a white fleck. Witness noticed that the hair turned up under the hat was quite grey. “She had a very white face as if she might be ill or had had a shock,” witness continued. “I did not take my eyes off the face because I was so intrigued. She was within two feet of me. before she crossed to the other side of the street. From the back view she looked like a well-dressed businessman. She was wearing glasses with flesh-coloured rims.” Witness said the police at a later date asked her to go into the city where she saw the woman she had seen in Kowhatu road. On this occasion she was not dressed in men’s clothes and her hair was darker. Mr Meredith: And that woman is? Witness: Accused in the dock. You are satisfied?—l am quite satisfied. To Mr Robinson, witness said she would have noticed if the person she saw on June 5 was wearing shoes , with two-inch heels. Detective’s Evidence Detective Thomas William Irving said he saw the witness Rix at the Mount Eden police station at 6 p.m. on the day of the murder Witness learned that Rix had called there. Rix was asked to strip and witness examined his body and clothing for traces of blood and found none. Witness was satisfied there had not been any blood on Rix’s body as he had not had a good wash for some time. Detective-Sergeant William Raymond Fell said that when he and Senior-Detec-tive P. Kearney called on accused at Newton road in the course of inquiries into the murder, she denied she had told Rix she had taken the front door key of the Rusden house from Rdsden’s pocket one night at Liberty House, and that she Jhad given it to Rix. At the mention of the key she became tense and persive and started to cry. Accused said she remained at home on June 5 until about 9.15 a.m., when she went up to the top of Symonds street. She had not been nearer One Tree Hill than the top of Symonds street that day. While searching accused’s house witness went to the top left-hand drawer of her dressing table and began to search it. Accused, he said, became visibly upset and was calling out for a certain person. Accused '(from the dock): Who? Who?

“I continued to search in the drawer and in the bottom I found a key,” continued witness. “I asked accused about this key. She said: ’That is the key 1 got from Rix at Kingsland that time. That is the key to No. 1 room at Liberty House.’

“Then there was a pause,” witness continued. “She went on to explain that she had taken this key down to Liberty House and tried it in the lock of No. 1 room and it would not fit. We tried it in the lock of the front door of the Rusden home and found it opened the door in the normal way.” Witness read a statement consisting of 19 typewritten pages made by accused on June 8, in which she gave an account of her movements on June 5, denied any knowledge of the murder, and denied all allegations made against her. Witness said arrangements were made for accused to complete the statement at the detective office on the next afternoon, out she did not come. She was found lying on the fl<xjr of her washhouse with cuts on her wrists and legs. Witness found a glass of water, a bottle of tablets (which appeared to be sleeping tablets), and a safety razor blade on top of the copper. A message was found in the lodgers’ book in accused’s breakfast room, in which she said she thought Rusden and Rix were m league over the murder. Accused was taken to hospital. The Courtadjourned until to-morrow.