COUNSEL FOR PARKER

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27441, 30 August 1954, Page 12

COUNSEL FOR PARKER

“This long and arduous trial is drawing now to a close and defence counsel will try to assist you in coming to e conclusion,” said Dr. Haslam, addressing the jury. “If in so doing we omit facts which may seem important to you it is not because we do not think them important It is because we think most of the facts will be clearly in your mind and we wish to save /our time by npt, traversing them “You have had to listen to a great deal of evidence of an unsavoury and repulsive nature, unfortunately,” said Dr. Haslam. • “But it was necessary as we have got to ascertain the state of these young people’s -minds. It was not put forward lor the purpose of ■fafirig you. "“May I suggest that you may have formed a dislike—it would be under- , standable if you had—to great deal done and said by the accused,” said Dr. Haslam. “But your job as members of the jury is a judicial one and you should not allow yourselves to be Influenced by any preconceived ideas. I earnestly ask you to approach the evidence and your decision as impartially and dispassionately as you can. Onas on Defence “The fact of the killing is not dis- . puted and I will not refer to it in detail for the horror of it will still be ) vivid in the minds of you all. The de- • fence undertakes to show you that the , girls were insane at the time of their . act to such an extent as the law will . excuse them for what they did,” said . Dr. Haslam, “The duty is on us, the ) defence, to prove to your satisfaction 1 that the girls are insane and we accept . that onus. In this, it is not a matter « Of counting heads. It is not sufficient that you say the defence called two L doctors but the Crown .called three, < so the medical evidence is* in favour < of the Crown. You must weigh up the . medical evidence for both sides. You j must test its credibility and its cogency, i If we have satisfied you that the girls , * were insane when they committed the - crime we are entitled to the verdict. ♦ ‘'Now what are. the facts? We have , it in evidence that in early childhood ‘ both girls suffered from ill health and j had more than their share of mis- j fortune,” said Dr. Haslam. “They met c at school in 1952. two lonely, with- 2 drawn girls. Both families welcomed , the friendship which they thought t would benefit both girls. Early in the c friendship, but how early has not been t determined, it began to be intense; there has been a reference to them going into the country for a bike ride and becoming so ecstatic and exalted t that they stripped off some of their t clothing and danced, and that they i' went home without some of their cloth- fc Ing. i “It is obvious from Parker’s diaries a that from its early stages this friend- i: ship assumed such an intensity that o the position became alarming. The diaries show that, and they also show c the steady deterioration of their minds 1 and of their mental condition.” said £ counsel “You have heard the defence k doctors speak of what has been termed t *the Port Levy revelation’ of , April, c 1953, and Parker says—and remember f« she was then about 14 years of age— t; that they had a vision of the fourth ii world, which seems to mean so much s to them, and that they had an extra o part of the brain which revealed it to o them. This key to the fourth world h was also the key in the bands of the d defence doctors which enabled them g by We ?S?wm CaPed the doctors caUed g w *^ban_tea friendship continued while P 1 was in tb e sanatorium. Wm toough she was there, the fancy d ■

of both girls had full play,” said Dr. Haslam. “They rushed to each other and wrote to each other in assumed names and their own names. The friendship intensified when Juliet B Hulme came out of the sanatorium. It - is true that in the latter part of 1953 _ Pauline Parker had other interests and - boy friends; but later the boy friends ♦ fan out of sight and it is Hulme who t means everything to her. You will B remember the strange episode of the B Coronation film. When everyone else " probably was keenly interested in it, . the only interest these girls had in it was to get material to use for their t fictional characters. 1 “Disastrous Association” 1 “Then this disastrous association gets r into its full stride,” said counsel. “Both » sets of parents became alarmed and s tried to break down the association. [ Mrs Hulme has told you what steps she and Dr. Hulme took. Mr Rieper, » with, whom we all sympathise in his . sad plight, told you how Parker’s L mother was worried about the associal tiori and tried to stop it. The girls . were a source of anxiety to both sets L of parents. They spent most of their i time at ‘Dam.’ Unfortunately, Parker . convinced the Hulmes that she was : unhappy at home. Further, she cut her own parents out of her affections. i While the two girls were at ‘Ham’ together they got out of bed at nights and got up to all sorts of pranks. There was a morbidly close association between them, the details of which I need not elaborate for they will be fresh in your minds. They created a Temple of Minerva and it became even more fanciful still, as the Temple of Raphael and Pan. They were keen on literature. They admired each other and each other’s work. They thought they were literary geniuses and had ! the fanciful notion of getting their novels filmed. Then came theip,utterly 1 fantastic plan of getting abroad. “Then came the episode w’hich upset : them and, no doubt, these children read too much into it.” said Dr. Haslam. ; “That was the episode in Perry’s bedroom at 2 o ! clock one morning, and Mrs Hulme told you about it. Dr. : Hulme discussed it and there was reference to the marriage breaking up. • Though we are not concerned with the domestic affairs of these good people, it seemed to the girls that their security was breaking up. This was - the background against which their insanity developed. Their mental dis- J order mounts and deterioration sets in ! and grows as it proceeds. They still 1 went on with their crazy plans and 1 the diary says they were sticking to ' one thing—that was to sink or swim ‘ together. “Distorted Idea” , “They thought Mrs Parker was a < threat to their being together. They « had the distorted and ’utterly foolish i idea of removing that threat. So we s have these girls planning their dread- j ful act, carrying it out so clumsily, 1 and then, after it was over, not showing a shadow of remorse. That was < on June 22. j “Dr. Medlicott and Dr. Bennett were t called in to see them,” said Dr. ; Haslam. “You will recollect that Dr. \ Bennett had one big advantage. He j knew something of the background of z both girls before he started on the t case. He had known jhe Hulmes well g for some time and Parker had been c taken to his surgery by her mother c in December, 1953. So that, when he saw these girls at the police station f on June 24 he had some knowledge £ of the facts preceding the tragedy. He r has come to the same conclusion as c did Dr. Medlicott. That is that the t

girls suffer from paranoia, delusions of grandeur and delusions * ecstasy. Each affects the other aqd aggravates the progress of the disease. “Dr. Bennett has pointed out that delusional insanity is difficult to de-

tect.” said Dr. Haslam. “Apparently there is ordinary, lucid working of the faculties .as far as the outside world can see. It is difficult to know the mental state of such people until you get to the delusion and find what it is. None of the doctors called by the Crown gave much weight to the Port Levy revelation or to the fourth world or paradise. It was their delu-| sion of grandeur and the key to their arrogance and conceit. They found that fourth heaven and gave the reason why. There are many varied forms; of insanity. Dr. Bennett said that de-1 lusional insanity impairs the judgment. Dr. Medlicott said it is like a cancer in the body. People outwardly look healthy but underneath there is this rottenness. At their interviews with the doctors the girls first S retended to be insane and then sane. ut the doctors were not deceived. They got to the core of it. Delusion Took Charge “You will remember the evidence on the girls saying the Bible, was bunkum. that Juliet was going to rewrite it on parchment vellum and Pauline was going to illustrate it,” said Dr. Haslam. “That is one of the many indications of the derangement of their minds. They were not a couple of young people just thinking of the problems of life and the hereafter. It was a case of distorted minds, where a delusion had taken complete charge. “The Crown doctors say these girls are quite sane, but they concede it is

a matter where medical opinion can differ. It is for you gentlemen of the jury to say which one you prefer. Doctor Bennett and Dr. Medlicott have told you these girls were insane on June 22 when they committed the attack on Mrs Parker. Dr. Bennett described—and it will be vividly in your minds—how the delusion works on and takes charge of the reason of these two girls,” said Dr. Haslam. “Their dream world was threatened and so they struck. In their imagination they had toyed with violence. Then it broke out and they committed their dreadful act “Dr. Bennett told you. that the delusion affected their whole judgment. He admits the girls knew when they struck the fatal blow they were killing Mrs Parker; but you gentlement of the jury have got to decide whether they still knew that what they were doing was wrong. Dr. Bennett said they were a couple of homosexual paranoics of the elated type. He said obeying the law was an intellectual thing, but he also said that emotion was more persuasive than intellect. These accused girls thought they were morally right or at least not wrong; that by killing Mrs Parker ; they were transferring an unhappy woman to heaven and also preserving the integrity of their own association. ‘Gentlemen, it is for you to decide whether the girls knew what they were doing was wrong,” said Dr. Haslam. “It is the submission of the defence that they did not know. I now commit my young clients to your merciful keeping, and I respectfully invite -you to bring back a verdict of i not guilty on the ground of insanity/’ ;