MURDER CHARGE AT AUCKLAND

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27639, 21 April 1955, Page 14

MURDER CHARGE AT AUCKLAND

Death Of Wife Of Accused LOWER COURT HEARING (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 20. The preliminary hearing of a charge of murder against James Wilson, aged 56, a garage attendant, began in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court _ today. Wilson is accused of murdering Jus wife, Maude Constance Elizabeth Wilson, aged 56, on August 31 last. The prosecution is calling 39 witnesses and the hearing is expected to end tomorrow. . Wilson was arrested at his home in Great South road on March 14, six months after the death of his wife. Eleven days after Mrs Wilson’s death her body was exhumed for autopsy and reinterred. _ „ Mr G. S. R. Meredith, Crown Prosecutor, and Mr G. D. Speight are appearing for the Crown. Wilson is represented by Mr L. P. Leary, Q.C., with him Mr B. Sinclair. Immediately the accused entered the dock and was charged, Mr Leary sought the usual order for the exclusion of witnesses, and Mr Meredith asked that the prosecution’s expert medical witnesses, Dr. P. P. Lynch (Wellington) and Dfr. F. J. Cairns, be excluded from the order. Mr Leary objected to this. Mr Meredith said he wanted his witnesses present. He had no objection, he said, to the presence during the hearing of the defence medical witness, Dr. Lindsay Brown. Mr Leary said he must press his objection. The witnesses could as well read the depositipns afterwards as hear the evidence, he said. My Meredith said it was usual for such witnesses to remain in Court.

Mr L. G. H. Sinclair, S.M., adjourned proceedings to discuss thp matter in chambers with counsel. On the resumption the Clerk of the Court announced that all witnesses must leave, including the expert witnesses. Evidence for Crown Norman Phillip Smith, formerly a butcher who lived two houses away from Wilson’s house, said that he used to call three times a week after work to deliver meat to Mrs Wilson. This was done to oblige her as she used to work during the day at her husband’s service station.

He remembered delivering meat to Mrs Wilson and speaking to her at her home about 5.30 p.m. on Monday, August 30. Mrs Wilson looked quite well.

Peter Gerald Gordon, an unqualified chemist employed by David Harper, Ltd, said that he knew Wilson. One morning—he thought it was August 30—Wilson telephoned him saying that his wife had been vomiting and had diarrhoea and requested that the witness deliver a mixture to her. The witness said he was unable to leave the shop, and a woman later called for the mixture, which was for stomach ailments, did not contain arsenic in any form, and was non-poison-ous.

Mre Doris Thomas said that she dealt at Wilson’s garage. She called for petrol on the morning of August 31, and Wilson told her that his wife was sick, and he wanted medicine for her from a chemist.

The witness said she got the medicine and delivered it to Mrs Wilson, who opened the door and returned to bed. The witness went into the bedroom, and Mrs Wilson said that she had been very sick thq night before, but now felt better. The witness said that Mrs Wilson took a spoonful of the medicine.

William Robert Samuel Bell, an employee of the Penrose Sawmilling Company, said he visited Mrs Wilson at her husband’s request on the .afternoon of the day of her death to see whether she wanted anything. The witness said that Wilson had told him his wife had gastric influenza. Mrs Wilson was in bed, and said she felt “pretty sick.” She vomited while he was there. The vomit was dark. / Medicine From Kitchen Mrs Wilson asked him to get a bottle of medicine from the kitchen sink. It was a small bottle, about three-quarters full, and pink. Mrs Wilson mixed some of the medicine in a glass and drank it. The witness said that Mrs Wilson asked him not to tell her husband she had diarrhoea, as it might worry him. The witness said he saw the accused about 3 p.m., and told him his wife looked fairly sick. After hearing of Mrs Wilson’s death the,witness went to see the accused in company with a fellow employee to express their sorrow. Wilson said he could not believe his wife was dead. The accused pointed to a bottle of medicine on the kitchen sink, and said it was unopened. The witness noticed it was sealed.

Mr Speight: Had there been any discussion about medicine to cause him to make such a remark, or did it just come out of the blue? The witness: There had been no discussion about medicine.

The witness said that the' accused said he was waiting for word about an autopsy. About two weeks before August 31 Mrs Wilson asked the witness to pick up medicine from a Newmarket chemist. She gave him 8s to pay for it, and he collected it and handed it to her. She said it was for insomnia.

Doctor’s Evidence Dr. J. A. Marshall said that the accused telephoned him between 8.15 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. on August 31 to come round, as his wife was very sick. The witness said he found Mrs Wilson very pale, lying fiat in her bed, and unconscious. He told the accused that his wife was dying. The accused said she had been sick the night before and when he left for work, and he thought it was gastric influenza. The witness said he gave Mrs Wilson a heart stimulant and called for an ambulance.

The witness said that while waiting fo £ ambulance he asked the accused whether his wife had had any medicine. The accused replied that his wife had bought two bottles of medicine from a chemist in Newmarket the previous Friday. “I asked to see 'the medicine, and the accused got the bottles from another room,” the witness said. “One bottle was completely full and the other half full. The liquid was dark brown, almost black, and I told the accused to take the half-used bottle to the hospital, as that might help the hospital staff.” / h Dr. G. N. D. 1 Cable said he was on ShSi he Gre en J ■ Public Hospita! the night Mrs Wilson was brought in He was told before she arrived that Dr. Marshall thought she might have had an overdose of sleeping draughts. “When I examined the patient she was deatL” said the witness. The accused told Kim his wife “ ad n b £ er i w* ll for some tir ne, and mat sne had not been sleeping. The t ? ppea .^ ed to be upset when dead by the wltness that his wife was

... Ta V < ’" Too Much Medicine” ... 1 the accused what he thought had happened, and he said perhaps she had taken too much medicine, said Arthur Frederick Holmes an undertaker and a friend of the accused. The witness said he asked the accused this question on the night 'Yi lson died. He stayed the night with the accused to keep him company. witness said he was present when Mrs Wilson’s body was exhumed on September 11. He took the body to the mortuary, and later went to see Wh ° taeW about the

At the time of her marriage Mrs S d Vi^ q Ah e a r gOOd bank Account sam Vivian Allen Laurent, brother of the dead woman. On the night Ms sister died he was out, and arrived home about.lo p.m. He found a note ° n tbe ‘ ront door which said -A 11 ®, 1 ?’ come over immediately—wdneas went to the a c?Xed’s 1 s . aid ’ What s wrong, Jim?' ” said the witness. “The accused said he Wes cold, and I asked why he had w?s dead?’ 6 ' He then SaH that Maude

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