MURDER CHARGE AT AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26493, 7 August 1951, Page 8

MURDER CHARGE AT

AUCKLAND

Woman’s Disappearance Nine Years Ago SUPREME COURT HEARING BEGUN (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 6. The trial began in the Supreme Court to-day of George Cecil Horry, aged 44, a tailor, on a charge of murdering his wife, who disappeared nine years ago the day after the marriage. Horry is alleged to have married Mary Eileen Jones under the name of Turner, and to have murdered her at or near Auckland. “The Crown suggests,” said the Crown Prosecutor (Mr V. R. Meredith), “that Horry swept an impressionable woman off her feet by the glamour of his alleged riches and English connexions and a story that he was a British secret service man on loan to the New Zealand Government. It will be alleged that he married her on July 12, 1942, secured possession of her money, approximately £lOOO, destroyed her the next day, and by means of bogus letters stifled inquiry as to her disappearance.” The hearing to-day was occupied almost entirely by Mr Meredith’s outline of the Crown case. The Crown proposes to call 51 witnesses, and the trial is expected to occupy at least a week.

Mr Justice Adams is presiding. The Crown Prosecutor is assisted by Mr Graham Speight. Mr A. K. Turner and Mr Norman Shieff are the defence counsel.

Twelve jurors took their seats after the customary challenging. One later notified the Judge that Mr Shieff had taken two cases for him. The juror was excused and a replacement made. Mr Meredith told the jury that the evidence they would hear would disclose a story fantastic to a degree and unprecedented in the history of New Zealand Courts. To prove the charge of murder it must be proved, first, that Mrs Turner was dead, and, second, that she met her death as a result of the wilful criminal act of Horry.

The body had never been found, said Mr Meredith. He added: “There is, I know, a view sometimes expressed that without a body no murder can be established, but this is entirely wrong. The death and the cause of death can be proved by circumstantial evidence.” Mrs Jones was previously divorced in 1939. said Mr Meredith. She lived in Herne Bay in a house which she owned, and was employed in the florist’s and seedsman’s shop of Mr Barnes in Customs street.

Horry was a tailor’s presser employed at the Maida Vale Clothing Company’s factory in Victoria street west. He had worked there from March 13, 1942, till July, 1944, and was only absent from work during that period for four days. He had definitely not been out of New Zealand from March, 1942, to the present time. Mr Meredith said that during 1942 Horry was keeping company with a Miss Geale, whom he married five months after the disappearance of Mrs Jones.

Horry had apparently become acquainted with Mrs Jones under the name of Turner. He told her and her friends that he was a secret service man, that he was a member of a Sheffield cutlery firm which was doing war munition work, that at his home in England there was a lodge, and that two collie dogs used to meet him at the gate and ride with him in his car to his home. He also told them, said Mr Meredith, that his home was destroyed in the blitz and his parents and family and the dogs were killed. It was suggested that lie used the secret service story to stifle all questions about himself. Typical of his impersonations was his going into Harness shop to see Mrs Jones when he was dressed in a naval rating's uniform, said Mi- Meredith. He said that he had been inspecting the naval base.

Wedding Arrangements Mrs Jones agreed to marry him, and it was arranged they would leave for Australia and England the day after the wedding. He said that the Government had guaranteed him a safe passage and he would probably be accompanied by a Government official. He told Mrs Jones not to take mucn luggage. Mr Meredith said that in his application for a marriage licence Horry, through an oversight, gave correctly maiden name of his mother, who still lived in Auckland. He later got the application back and amended the maiden name. The wedding was fixed c » was Postponed until Saturday, July 11, because he had to wait for permission from “somebody higher up.” Jjt is significant” Mr Meredith added, “that Mrs Jones’s house was sold and the date of the settlement was July 10. It was not actually settled on the 10th. but though solicitors’ offices were closed on Saturday, July 11, arrangements were made for the settlement on the morning of the day Mrs Jones was married to Turner, who is this man Horry. “On the wedding morning Mrs Jones called at the office of Mr Goldstine, her solicitor, and was paid a cheque for £676. The previous day she closed her bank account and received £3OO in cash. Two days before the wedding Horry, on the excuse that his salary cheque had not arrived, asked Mrs Jones. for a loan, and she gave him £3O. He made a will in Mrs Jones's favour, and promised a settlement on her on arrival in England. Mrs Jones cried with joy.

“Two girl friends on the night before the wedding helped Mrs Jones alter her wedding dress and other garments and pack her clothes in two suitcases and a hatbox. Just before the wedding Mrs Jones hired a rental car and paid for it. After the wedding ’Turner’ placed his arms round the bride’s mother. Mrs Spargo. and said emotionally: “Thank God for a mother at last.’ He was forgetful of the one who is still living in Auckland. “Out at the home of Mrs Turner’s parents at Henderson after the wedding the accused put over the same stuff to the old people about his parents being killed in the blitz and his being a member of the secret service,” Mr Meredith continued. “He told them that they were going away in a plane, and he would arrange with the pilot to circle three times over the house so that they could wave goodbye.” The accused had told them that he could not let them know when they arrived, because if he sent a cable the Germans could “pick it up and start bombing.” After they had spent some time there they left. Mrs Spargo neither heard of nor saw her daughter again. Call to Solicitor Mr Meredith said they arrived at the Helensville Hotel about 8 o’clock that night, and put through a call to Auckland to Mr Goldstine, Eileen Turner's solicitor. He rang the hotel at midnight in response to a message that had been left, and recognised the voice of his client. “She asked him to open the cheque which she had received in payment for her house. He explained that it was not his practice. The accused took the telephone and persisted, but Mr Goldstine declined. “That cheque,’’ added Mr Meredith, could not be handled or negotiated except through a bank, and the person ’ who handled it would have to identify himself with the cheque. That is the reason why at midnight he tried to get the solicitor to open the cheque. .. following morning the two left the hotel early, and went to call on Miss Shepherd, a friend of Mrs Turner. Her house is on Titirangi road, surrounded by miles of heavy bush country, and further out there are sand Hj eb< ? ch L Mr Meredith. Told of their forthcoming flight Mii

Shepherd had actually waved to a plane the following day. thinking it was they on their way to Australia. They left about 11 o'clock, and she was the last person the police have been able to find that saw Mrs Turner alive. The Crown’s theory is that in the wilderness of the bush somewhere lies the body of Mrs Turner.”

Mr Meredith said that later letters arrived from Australia, apparently from “George and Eileen.” but all that time the accused had remained in i Auckland attending to his daily work. “But he had her money,” added Mr Meredith. “On July 14 he showed up at the Union Bank. He had the cheque endorsed by Eileen Jones and another ] £BO in notes. He told the bank that his name was Charles Anderson, and that he was acting for Turner, who had returned to England after marry- : ing Eileen Jones. He opened an account with the bank, and after the signature on the cheque had been ; identified by Mr Goldstine’s office the money was paid into his account. “The bank was merely being made use-of,” continued Mr Meredith. “Within a few days he drew it all out. The bank noticed this fact, but when it made inquiries it found no trace of him at the address he had given. Shortly after he bought a section for £3OO ana had a house built.” Letters from Australia _ Mr Meredith said that soon the'letters started to come across from Australia. “That is where, with all his cunning he slipped a little,” he added. “He could not know when he wrote to the Hotel Australia asking that a letter be forwarded to New Zealand that the manager would send a covering note.” Mr Meredith said that the letters from Australia were written by the accused to satisfy the relatives and friends of Mrs Turner and to stifle any inquiry that might be made: From tte letters these people would be entitled to assume that the couple were going to England, and they would disarm any suspicion that anything untoward had happened to Eileen The accused married Miss Geale in Auckland op December 12, 1942, not knowing that on December 6 Eileen Turner’s parents had handed one of the Australian letters to the police. The accused, strangb m it mW seem; was not recognised in the city by any of the people who were at the Turner wedding, although he was still In Auckland. There was still the chance, however, that he might be recognised as the man who married Mrs Turner, and it became necessary for him to satisfy Eileen Turners people that she was dead. Mr Meredith said that the accused called and saw Mrs Turner’s mother on December 19 and simulated Sief while he told a story of Eileen’s ing lost on the Empress of India, which, he said, was torpedoed by a German submarine in the Atlantic. He said that he had lost his papers and was ashore getting copies of papers while a British warship waited for him. The accused, however, now wanted to find out whether his deception was successful, so he wrote to the Brisbane YM.C.A., enclosing a letter to be handed to a Mr Lexington, or posted back to New Zealand. In the letter he asked that the Spargos write one letter to him at the GJP.O., Sydney. This letter and an enclosure from the Brisbane Y.M.C.A., were handed to the police on February 15. Watch on Post Office The detectives then arranged for the Spargos to write a sympathetic letter to the GJ’.O., Sydney, as requested by Horry, and this was done. As the police expected, a redirection slip, signed G. Turner, was received by the Sydney GJP.O., asking them to send the Spargo reply to the Auckland Post Office. A woman constable kept watch in the letter department for some days, and saw the accused ask for Turner mail for some days. He was finally given the Spargo reply and was seen to read it and tear it up. He then went back to his work at the clothing factory.

“I am sure you will appreciate that, as these inquiries started so late, to find anything secreted or planted in the Waitakeres would be almost impossible unless the exact spot was known,” Mr Meredith continued. “It may well be that the cache was prepared beforehand. However, a widespread search was made, and world-wide inquiries were earned out."

On June 26, 1943, the accused had been interviewed by two police officers. They told him almost everything that they had discovered and what they knew. They asked him if he had any explanation to make or could say what had become of Mrs Turner. “The accused admitted marrying Eileen Jones, but denied writing the letters which arrived from Australia,” said Mr Meredith. “He said that he last saw her at the Chief Post Office on the afternoon of the day after the wedding. He said she had given him money because she wanted to be married, and that she was running away with another man.

“This story seems pretty ridiculous, as Mrs Turner had already been married once before. It was the best he could think up on the spur of the moment It is so absolutely absurd that one cannot put the slightest credence on the suggestion. It is remarkable that, if as ne said he did not write the letters sent from Australia, he should have inquired at the Auckland Post Office for a letter." Mr Meredith said that on the same day; the police had recovered property, mainly clothing, which had belonged to Mrs Turner, in the accused’s house. Mrs Turner’s fur coat was found in a waiting-room at the railway station in September, 1942. It was kept for a year, and as it was unclaimed was sold for £35 to a man who gave it to his wife. By a strange coincidence the owner took the coat to the furrier -that had originally made the coat for Mrs Turner to get alterations done. The furrier recognised the coat from markings in it, and notified the police. Delay in Prosecution “By June, 1943, the police had collected evidence," said Mr Meredith. “They knew about the accused’s fraud, but they still did not have the body. It was considered advisable to have the body, so no steps were taken to arrest Horry. You can appreciate that it could be said, if Horry was arrested then, that in spite of his conduct and lies there was still a possibility that Mrs Turner might turn up, and no one

could take the risk of finding Horry guilty of destroying her. “When once a person is tried and acquitted of murder it would not matter what might turn up after Wards. The person could never be tried again. The police had to wait for the body to turn up, or wait until the failure for the body to turn up with the lapse of time had increased the certainty that the body would not turn up and never would.” Mr Meredith said that in civil cases seven years was taken as the lapse of time to presume death. The police had to wait for time to run on until they could take a strong inference from the lapse of time. The matter was allowed to wait for nine years, and nothing was heard of Mrs Turner, in spite of world-wide police notices, publicity in the press, and searches throughout New Zealand. There was not one whisper from Mrs Turner, although she was an affectionate daughter, and might have been expected to write to her parents if she were alive.

The police had reached a stage where there had to be a limit to the lapse of time, because witnesses might die, as some had, or grow frail and unable to give evidence. The matter had to come to an issue, and Horry was finally arrested this June.

After Constable V. C. Naylor had produced photographs which he had taken between December, 1942, and July, 1951, the hearing was adjourned.