Wellington Man To Stand Trial On Charge Of Murder

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27912, 8 March 1956, Page 17

Wellington Man To Stand Trial On Charge Of Murder

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 7. After hearing 14 witnesses for the prosecution in the Magistrate’s Court at Wellington today, Mr M. B. Scully, S.M., committed Herbert Edward Dorset. aged 39. a clerk, of Old Porirua road, Glenside, for trial on a charge of murdering George Grandison on January I£, 1956. The Crown was represented by Sir William Cunningham, with him Mr W. R. Birks. Mr W. E. Leicester, with him Mr W N. Sheat, appeared for the accused. An architect, John Wordsworth Standish, gave evidence that he was returning to Wellington with his wife and family on the afternoon of January 12. Near Glenside, a man standing near a station waggon signalled to him to stop, and then called out, “The man in the car is running away with my wife.” The station waggon began to move off, and the man, whom he now recognised as the accused, ran to the moving vehicle, opened the door with his left hand, and fired a revolver, apparently at the driver. The waggon then swerved and hit a pole. The witness said that he went on to the first house with a telephone and rang the police. When he approached the station waggon he noticed a woman in it, and children standing by.

To Mr Leicester, the witness said that the accused did not appear distressed when he spoke to him, and he did not notice whether the children were distressed or not.

An officer of the Wellington Free Ambulance, John McKeen, described removing Grandison to hospital. He said he found him sitting in the station waggon on the Hutt road near the railways sub-station. The man was on the middle of the front seat, but more to the passenger’s side of it. He was deeply unconscious. A woman was by the vehicle. Evidence was given of Grandison’s admission to hospital and his death early next morning, after an emergency operation. A clerk employed by a car rental firm. Roy Leonard Glastonbury, produced a record book to show that at 8 a.m on January 12, George Grandison took out a station waggon for the day. He paid £l4 hire and deposit, and said that he would use it for 100 miles.

To Mr Leicester, the witness said that the information that the vehicle was wanted for 100 miles would come from the hirer. Visit to Australia

Mary Hall, a married woman, who occupies a bach at the back of the accused’s home at Glenside, said that when she returned last August from a holiday, accused told her that his wife had gone away, and that he was going to Australia. Two of his children were sent to a relative in the Wairarapa, and the youngest was with its mother.

The accused returned from Australia alone, but later told her that he now knew where his wife was, and left again for Australia. He brought his wife and the youngest child back with him.

The witness said she knew Grandison, and he usually visited the house at night, after the children had gone to bed. On the morning of January 12 she left for work as usual, and on her return in the evening the accused asked her to have a cup of tea, as it would probably be the last one she would have with him. He said that he had killed his wife and her friend. The police a'rrived about 20 minutes later, and the accused asked the witness to walk down the path with him in case they thought he was armed. To Mr Leicester, the witness said that she did not know before August of last year of any association between Grandison and Mrs Dorset. When Mrs Dorset went to Australia, the accused told the witness that he believed her to be with Grandison. Mr Leicester: Did he tell you he had roamed the streets of Sydney to find her? The witness: Yes. The witness added that she always found the accused to be a quiet, decent man.

John Digby Dorset, aged 10, son of the accused, was next called by Sir William Cunningham. He said he recalled the station waggon being outside his home on the late afternoon of January 12. It was packed with suitcases, and at least two of these belonged to his mother.

His father came home from work and put his motor-cycle away. He got a rifle and went down the path towards the station waggon. The witness said he had not seen the rifle before, and his father placed it down in long grass near a milk stand. When the station waggon moved off his father ran after it.

Sir William Cunningham: Did you hear shots?

The witness: I don’t know. They were pretty silent. To Mr Leicester, the witness said that he had not seen his father since the police took him away. He was living with his mother at Glenside still. When the three children walked down to the waggon with their father they picked up pieces of wood to stop Grandison taking their mother away. His two sisters were crying at the time.

To further questions by Mr Leicester, the witness said that he sometimes went with his mother to Grandison’s room at Porirua. He was always told not to tell his father of these visits.

Constable Bruce Josiah Perigo gave evidence of recovering the station waggon after he had answered a call to what was reported as a motor accident on the Hutt road. A woman was sitting in the waggon when he arrived, and because of what she told him he went to the accused’s home at Glenside.

To Mr Leicester the witness said that it was four miles from Glenside to where the station waggon was found on the Hutt road. Dr. P. P. Lynch gave evidence of a post-mortem operation on Grandison, and said the cause of death was hemorrhage and laceration of the brain as a result of two gunshot wounds. Detective William John Ross, who made an inventory of the suitcases in the station waggon, said that they contained a man’s and women’s clothes.

The quantity of clothing suggested a fairly long stay. Statement to Police Detective-Sergeant William Trevor Cook produced and read a statement made by the accused on the evening of January 12. In it the accused said: “Last August my wife was supposed to go on holiday and see a girl friend at Tauoo. She left, I thought, to go on this holiday. On August 26 I received a letter from New Plymouth from my wife saying she had left me and had a good job in the country. I went up to New Plymouth twice and searched for her. I then found that she had left for Sydney with Grandison. That was the first time that I had heard his name. I flew to Sydney, but had to return as a search for my wife was unavailing.” The accused then said that he received word from his wife’s sister that Mrs Dorset was in Melbourne with Grandison. ‘‘l flew to Melbourne and had a talk with my wife, and asked her to come back, which she did,” he said. “Grandison came to New Zealand again before Christmas. “Today, January 12, when I came home at a quarter to five I saw a woman get out of a car. It was my wife, and she said, ‘lt is no good, I am going away with George.’ I pleaded with her to come back, but she got back into the car, which Grandison was driving. Stopping of Car

“She asked me to bring the children down to say goodbye. I went up to the house, where the three children were crying. I took a pistol I had, which was already loaded, and slipped it into my pocket. I went back to the road with the kids. My wife asked them if they wanted to go with her, and they said ‘No.’ I stopped a car I saw coming along, as I had been told Grandison was a bit vicious and I wanted the motorist to witness the fight. “My wife said, ‘What are you stopping that car for?’ and then Grandison started to drive off.” the accused said “I opened the off-side door and fired at him over my wife. I wanted to wound him to stop him. I then walked back to the house with the kids. I do not know what else happened at the car, and when the police came I showed them where I had put the revolver in the china cabinet.” To Mr Leicester, the witness said that the accused had been co-opera-tive in every way. Sergeant William Alfred Thomas McGuire, ballistic and firearm specialist at police headquarters, said that the bullets removed from Grandison’s head had rifling corresponding to that of the revolver taken from the accused’s possession. To Mr Leicester the witness said that the revolver, which was of American design, was at least 40 years old.