MURDER TRIAL EVIDENCE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26032, 8 February 1950, Page 6

MURDER TRIAL EVIDENCE

OBJECTION MADE BY COUNSEL , ' ACCOUNT OF INTERVIEW WITH ACCUSED (New Zealand Press Association) PALMERSTON N., Feb. 7. Objection to evidence admitted by Mr Justice Gresson in the Supreme Court trial of Napoleon Brown on & charge of murdering Mrs Emily Christina Hall at Foxton was made by counsel for the defence. This evidence w«s to the effect that shortly before her death Mrs Hall complained to a friend that Brown had visited her home on the pretext of paying rents, locked the door . behind him, and then demanded with threats money from Mrs Hall. This evidence was given by SeniorDetective Power. Describing an interview with the accused before his arrest, Senior-Detective Power told’ the accused about Mrs Hall’s complaint. His Honour said that if only the accused’s answers were admitted in evidence without admitting the remarks which evoked the answers, the interview would be unintelligible. Senior-Detective Power said that . when Mrs Hall’s complaint was put to the accused he denied it. Senior-Detective Power said he was a member of the police party guided by Brown to the swamp where a jar of money was recovered, the accused explaining that when he was told by a man named Flutey Mrs Hall was dead he saw the boportunity of i getting possession of a large sum he knew Mrs Hall had. He went with Flutey to her house and found her dead on the floor. The accused said he removed the fire shovel, which was lying on her chest, wiped the blood from his hands on her clothing, took the money, and left the house with Flutey. Dr. P. Lynch, pathologist, gave the probable sequence of events leading up tc Mrs Hall’s death as several blows on the head with the fire shovel, one or two blows in the face with a fist, then asphyxiation by sacking tied round the mouth, followed by manual strangulation by fingers round the throat, and a fracture of the some. Several fractured ribs and bruises near the breastbone indicated that the assailant probably knelt on her chest while she Was lying on the noor. Human bloodstains were found on Brown’s trousers, but none on the clothing of Flutey. The case will be continued to-mor-row.