Husband For Trial For Alleged Murder Attempt

Press, Volume C, Issue 29602, 26 August 1961, Page 16

Husband For Trial For Alleged Murder Attempt

(New Zealand Press Association)

WANGANUI, August 25. The accused struck her twice on the face and the last thing she remembered was “a hand coming towards her,” said Sherley Pretoria Douglas, aged 24. married in the Magistrate’s Court at Wanganui today, during the hearing of evidence on a charge of attempted murder against Herbert Quinton Douglas, aged 27, a painter. Douglas is charged with attempting to murder his wife at Wanganui on July 27 last. At the conclusion of the Lower Court hearing, which occupied most of the day, Mr B. S Barry. S M.. committed Douglas, who pleaded not guilty, to the Supreme Court for trial. Mr C. N Armstrong prosecuted Douglas was represented by Mr W. G. Clayton. Mrs Douglas said that while she was with the accused in a van parked on the river bank at Wanganui East he struck her several times. This was after she had refused to “go back to him” She said she was married to the accused in September. 1956 She said her marriage was not a happy one. She and her husband were legally separated in January. 1959 Before that they parted several times These partings lasted only a matter of weeks Until the middle of July they had been living in Auckland, but their life there had been “unbalanced |and unset'led.” She left the Auckland

home in mid-July. Later she got in touch with her husband by telegram so that they could talk over their problems “properly and legally.” Mrs Douglas said she asked her husband for a divorce, but he refused on the grounds that he did not have enough money. She then asked for a separation and the custody of their eldest child, a four-year-old boy. The accused had agreed to both these things The arrangement was for the accused to look after the younges* child, a two-year-old girl. After this discussion the accused had gone to a street telephone to ring a solicitor for an appointment. At his request, she accompanied him in a van. She understood they were going to see a solicitor to arrange an agreement over their domestic position, When she left her parents’ home with the accused in the van early in the afternoon relations between them were “relaxed and normal.” The accused questioned her about what she intended to do in the future She refused to return to him. and he had “broken down and cried and pleaded again.” When the accused realised she was determined not to go back to him, he began striking her. Evidence of statements made to the police by the accused was given by Detective Donald John Brewer and Senior Detective Burton Bernard Bevege. r