Man Being Tried On Charge Of Attempted Murder Of Wife

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27584, 15 February 1955, Page 16

Man Being Tried On Charge Of Attempted Murder Of Wife

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, February 14. Tlie trial of Colin Henry Booker, aged 38, a traffic officer, on a charge of attempted murder, opened before Mr Justice Finlay and a jury in the Supreme Court today. Booker is charged with attempting to murder his wife, Emily Hurst Hoad Booker, at their home, 12 Eaglehurst road, Ellerslie, on August 3, 1954. There is an alternative charge that, with intent to do grievous bodily harm, Booker did his wife actual bodily harm. Booker pleaded not guilty to both charges. Mr S. A. Cleal appears for the Crown. Booker is represented by Mr D. S. Beattie, with him Mr E. A. Onner. The Crown alleges Booker attacked his wife with a hand sledge hammer while she was asleep in bed, and caused serious head injuries. It is alleged that Booker then made it appear as if an unknown man had entered the house, made the attack, and injured Booker himself while Booker struggled with him. Letter to “Lady Friend’* In his opening address, Mr Cleal said Booker had written a letter to a “lady friend” while he was in the Auckland Prison awaiting trial. The letter had been written on the back of letters written to the accused by his parents, said Mr Cleal. It was couched in “most affectionate terms,” which showed Booker’s infatuation for the woman. It was a long letter, and had been got out of the prison in some way. The letter explained what Booker had told the police, and said that he would have to say he loved his wife, but that the woman to whom the letter was addressed would know the true position, Mr Cleal said. Mrs Booker had suffered fractures of the left temple and jaw, said counsel. She had been unconscious for three weeks, and it was only because of skilful nursing and medical attention that she was alive today. Mr Cleal then outlined the evidence to be called. He told the Court that the Crown s first witness, Sergeant B. C ‘ j e X eM ’, suffered scalp injuries and a fracture of the spine in a driving accident, and could not be called. His evidence of taking photographs and making unsuccessful fingerprint tests on a hammer and a chisel was read to the jury. Sergeant E. M. Grace produced casts m footprints on the lawn. To Mr Beattie, he said it appeared that a

bare heel had been thumped in the soil. Evidence by Accused's Daughter Booker’s 13-year-old daughter, Rhonda Booker, was the next witness. She said that one Saturday, when her father had been on duty at the Avondale races, he had come home with lipstick on his lips. Her mother asked him about this, and there was a discussion which the witness could not remember. The witness, questioned by his Honour, said the general nature of the discussion was that the accused had beeh supposed to be working, and had not done so. Her father had denied to her mother going out with a girl, and also that, when the telephone rang and she could get no reply, it was a girl trying to communicate with him. The witness said that, before the attack on her mother, she noticed a change in her father about the house. “He was very strange, wasn’t happy, and used to growl at me a lot,” she said. The witness described going out with her parents on the night of August 2, and then going to bed about 9 p.m. She said she was awakened by someone creeping about the house. She did not hear her Pomeranian dog bark, as he usually did with strangers. The dog was in a box on the landing. She heard a loud bang, and the front door open and bang twice, said the witness. She went out to the porch, and saw her father coming round from the back of the house. He was calling for Mr Lomax, their next-door neighbour. She described the scene in her parents’ bedroom. Her mother was saying “Colin, Colin,” or “Bruce”—the name of a cousin—and also something about a man. The witness said she noticed a cut on her father’s arm, and he said the man he had chased round the house had done it. Aubrey Perry Lomax, the accused’s neighbour, told of being called to the house by the accused and seeing Mrs Booker. He thought she had had a hemorrhage. Booker was telephoning for the ambulance, but was shaking so much that the witness took the receiver and telephoned. Two sisters of Mrs Booker, Gladys Emily May Menzies and Alice Mavis Hose, gave evidence of changed rewifenShiPS between Bo °ker and his Traffic Sergeant N. A. Lake said Mrs Booker had communicated with him four or five times about her husband’s duties, but he did not give her information about the hours Booker worked. The hearing will continue tomorrow.