MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE
ACCUSED ACQUITTED AT GISBORNE (New Zealand Press Association) GISBORNE, August 16. After a retirement of 25 minutes, a jury in the Gisborne Supreme Court late today acquitted a 24-year-old farm hand, James Anderson Patterson, on a charge of manslaughter. The charge was a sequel to a fight at a tangi at Hiruharama, near Ruatoria, on the night of June 15. when Carl Schroskl, aged about 35, a farm labourer, died from injuries which the Crown alleged had been suffered in a flight with the accused. In his summing-up, the Chief Justice (Sir Harold Barrowelough)- said that the accused had killed a man against whom he bore no rancour. It was regrettable the tangi was conducted the way it was, and that drunken stupidity ended in the death ot a man. The only matter that could excuse the accused in this case was that he acted in self-defence. The most important question-for the jury was whether the accused really tried to break off the fight.
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Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27739, 17 August 1955, Page 12
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166MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27739, 17 August 1955, Page 12
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