Accused Allegedly Fired Twice At Traffic Officer

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30348, 25 January 1964, Page 16

Accused Allegedly Fired Twice At Traffic Officer

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, January 24.

After driving a truck at Dudley Patrick Joseph Wallace Cole, a traffic officer, Neville Leon Janssens, aged 35, a shop proprietor, fired twice at him with a shotgun, it was alleged in the Magistrate’s Court, at Lower Hutt, today. Janssens was appearing before Mr J. F. Keane, S.M., charged with attempting to murder Cole on December 28 at Silverstream.

Mr J. D. Murray appeared for the Crown, and Mr R. Stacey, with him Mr R. R. Shaw, for JanssensCole said he was divorced from his wife. He met Janssens’s wife, Dorothy Janssenss, two years ago while lie was a part-time driving instructor. He next saw her in May, 1962, while he was attending a Transport Department course at Trenthem, during which they met twice.

Cole said he fell in love with Mrs Janssens in March, 1963, and they met frequently at his suggestion. Shortly after, she came to live with him at his house at 5 Avery grove, Lower Hutt.

After three weeks, Mrs Janssens returned home to her husband at Porirua. Then Janssens arrived one night at Avery grove with his wife and asked her which man she wanted.

She wanted to stay with him, said Cole. After Jaanssens had a boating accident, Mrs Janssens returned home a second time. Relations between himselef and Janssens had, to that stage, been cordial. There was one scuffle late in October between Janssens and himself, but nothing further happened till the night of December 27 last. Cole said he had gone to Upper Hutt for the evening

and was driving home at 1 a.m. along the Eastern Hutt road when he recognised Mrs Janssens’ car coming the opposite way. Turning, he followed her till both cars stopped on the Silverstream straight, just north of the bridge.

While he was walking back to the other car, Janssens drove up in his truck and swung around heading straight for him, said Cole. Janssens did not apply his brakes till Cole had jumped out of the truck’s path. Janssens leaped out of the truck clutching a shotgun. Struggle Described

“I grabbed the firearm and as I swung round to get leverage, my hands slipped off it. I rolled on the ground, got up and started to take evasive action towards the south,” said Cole.

Janssens shot twice at a range of between 20ft and 30ft, and, hit in the neck and head, Cole said he sneaked under a tree to avoid any further shots. After Janssens left, Cole said he went to the Upper Hutt police. Arthur Cecil Morrison, a workman, said he lived with Cole. On the night of December 27, Mrs Janssens arrived with her two children and clothes. (Cole was not at home.) She went to bed in Cole’s room. About 1 a.m., Morrison said, he was awakened when Mrs Janssens burst into his room shouting: “Arthur, Arthur, he has come to shoot Dudley.”

She was followed by Janssens carrying the shotgun. Janssens was bleeding. He took his wife and children away after searching the house.

To Mr Stacey, Morrison said he had seen Cole kissing Mrs Janssens when she had visited the house on previous occasions, also both of them sitting on a double bed in Cole’s room.

Peter Schweitzer, a medical practitioner, said he found five puncture wounds behind Cole’s right ear and in his neck and a number of pellets and fragments under the skin. None had damaged anything vital.