SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27493, 29 October 1954, Page 11

SUPREME COURT

TRIAL ON ASSAULT CHARGES DEFENCE OF EPILEPSY RAISED A defence of epileptic automatism was raised yesterday in the trial of Douglas David Eric Gordon, aged 25, a spray painter, in the Supreme Court before Mr Justice Adams and a jury on the alternative charges of assaulting Patrick Joseph Fitzsimmons on i. 20 so as to cause him actual boaiiy harm, and of common assault. The Crown called evidence in rebuttal of this and, when this was partly heard, the hearing was adjourned until this morning. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr A. W. Brown! is appearing for the Crown, and Mr E. S. Bowie for Gordon, who pleaded not guilty to both charges. lhe hearing began on Wednesday ana when it was resumed yesterday further witnesses gave evidence for tbe Crown.

Constable A. G. Adams said he went a 10 x A £ edale P lace at !-20 a.m. on August 20. He saw the accused, who was stripped to the waist. Gordon was taken in a car to the police station. ,

The Defence i ♦ r x ? owie said he would submit : at er that no assault did occur, but if there was an dssault the defence would establish that the accused had no control over his actions. Frank Williamson, a director of a company of perambulator makers, said that Gordon had been employed his company for about four years. He had found him to be a first-class worker m every way and his moral character to be excellent. Douglas David Eric Gordon, the accused, said he had been in New Zealanafor four years. Before that he had been an able seaman for six years. Before going to the ball on August 19 he had two small sherries. He drank punch at the ball and also had quite a number of whiskies. Towards the end of the ball he had an argument with the witness Haines, but he could not recall what it was about. He saw he was upsetting the party so he went home in a taxi. He remembered going into his own house but he could remember nothing at all of anything after that until the police officers spoke to him. Until he consulted Dr. Bennett and Dr. Baxter he had no idea he was an epileptic. Medical Evidence Dr. Francis Oswald Bennett, a consultant physician, said that Gordon had an epileptic fit in his surgery on August 27. The spasm passed and Gordon relaxed and came back to his original position. “When I asked him if it was one of his blackouts he did not answer. He seemed to be unaware that he had this attack. Right up to the time he left the surgery he was still in a dazed state,” said Dr. Bennett. Alcohol was bad for the potential epileptic. It tended to bring on attacks. Epilepsy was a common disease.

t Dr. Bennett said that in his view Gordon had a period of post epileptic automatism on the night of August 1920 and Was incapable of intending his action, and he did not know that what he was doing was wrong. Dr. Robert Hector Quentin Baxter, a neurologist, said he examined Gordon on September 14. Witness said that from his examination of Gordon and from what he had heard in Court he would think he was an epileptic and had a petit mal attack in Dr. Bennett’s surgery. Automatism might precede a fit, replace a fit, or follow a fit. In his opinion Gordon did not know what he was doing when he attacked Fitzsimmon? with knives. It was probably due to alcohol alone, but there was a posibility that it was partly due to epilepsy. “ z Lynette Margaret Gordon,' wife of the accused, said they had been married six months, but she had known him for four years. She gave evidence on the injury suffered by Gordon in a fall three years ago. Shortly aflfer they were married her husband complained of a headache and then he seemed to fall down in a faint. He did not answer when she spoke to him and as she was trying to drag him up into a chair he began to come round. That concluded the case for the defence.

Evidence in Rebuttal Mr Brown said he proposed to call medical evidence in rebuttal of that brought by the defence. Dr. Charles Stewart Moore, senior medical officer at the Sunnyside Hospital, said he examined Gordon on October 21 and interviewed Mrs Gordon ajid Mrs A’Court/ Gordon’s history was one of a normal, happy upbringing in a home with united parents “From my observation of Gordon and my knowledge of the events of the night of August 19-20 I still doubt very much whether he is an epileptic and I do not think he acted as an epileptic automaton at and after the ball,” said witness. “I feel sure this episode was not a matter of epileptic automatism. I think he knew what he was doing and that he knew it was wrong.” Dr. Moore was being cross-examined by Mr Bowie when the Court adjourned until this morning.