MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26266, 10 November 1950, Page 6

MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

RUNANGA * SHO TTING INCIDENT

IMPRISONMENT FOR SEVEN YEARS

From Our Own Report,, GREYMOUTH, November ». William Hainey Hillhouse, aged 20, a mine trucker, of Runanga, who was found guilty of manslaughter after he had been charged with the murder of his sister, -Margaret Rose Hillhouse, aged 18, at their parents’ home at Runanga, on August 12, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment with hard labour by Mr Justice Nouthcroft in the Supreme Court at Greymouth to-day. Entering a plea for the prisoner, his counsel, Mr C. R. McGinley, said that the main cause of his downfall appeared to be due to his addiction to drink. Like many other young men in to-day’s industrial conditions, the prisoner was earning more than his lather. The crime had been unpremeditated, and he felt that his Honour would agree that the manslaughter verdict returned by the jury had shown that they had been satisfied that there had been no intention of murder in the prisoner’s mind. Mr. Justice Northcroft told the prisoner that his crime history was very disquieting, and showed that he was no A ab iS or not willing to control himself. The Courts had tried to control him with fines, sentences, and eventually prison sentences, but he had not long been out of gaol on the last occasion when he killed his own sister. The community must be guarded against such people, said his Honour, in announcing the sentence of seven years' imprisonment with hard labour.