Charged With Manslaughter
(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND,
April 12. Jan marie Rutherford, aged 29, a beauty consultant, faced charges of manslaughter and dangerous driving causing death when she appeared before Mr L. G- H. Sinclair, S.M., today.
She is charged with the manslaughter of Marc Hadrien Brudenell-Bruce a t Glen Innes on February 27 and dangerous driving causing the death of BrudenellBruce.
When the hearing opened, Detective Senior-Sergeant R. C. Anderson said he would call 17 witnesses.
Dolly Cooper, aged 19, said that as she turned her car into Merton road, Glen Innes, about 5 p.m. on February 27, she saw a van approaching with a man sitting on the side
of the bonnet. The van was travelling between 10 to 20 miles an hour.
She looked away briefly and on looking back, saw the van had stopped and the man was lying on the road. She stopped her car opposite the van and got out. A tall woman asked her to help get the man into the van. Mr Anderson: Have you seen this woman today?—Yes, outside, I think. ROUGH ROAD
Cross-examined by Mr P. B. Temm, Miss Cooper agreed Merton road was rough, with many pot-holes. Kevin Austin Neil, aged 17, a stockman, said he was walking along Apirana avenue when he saw a man hitting a woman seated beside him in a van. “The woman was yelling: ‘Stop hitting me,’ he said. “The van moved off while I was watching.” The man was hitting the
woman “quite viciously.” “There was a whole lot of blows.” The van was driven off erratically and “in a hurry.” CALL FOR HELP Neville Charles Sorenson, an electrician, said he was standing on the Glen Innes railway station platform when he heard a woman call for help. He saw a man and a woman sitting in a van parked in Apirana avenue. The man hit the woman once, then appeared to pull at her clothing. Walking home later that afternoon, he again saw the van—this time in Merton road. A group of men carried a body along Merton road, and put in in the back of the van.
Phillip Francis Dyer, aged 17, an apprentice panelbeater, said he and four other persons were in his car when he was driving along Merton road when he saw a body. He stopped the car and asked a woman, whom he identified as Rutherford, if she wanted a hand.
The group then lifted the man and put him in the back of the van. “FELL OUT”
“She said he was drunk and always acted like this. She said he fell out of the van,” said Dyer. “The man had a graze down the side of his face. His shirt was ripped.” Trevor Ronald Jones, a driver, said that about 6.15 p.m. on February 27 Rutherford knocked on the door of his home in St. Lukes road, Mount Albert. “She asked me to come and have a look at her husband who had apparently collapsed in the basement.” He said he went to the basement and found Brud-enell-Bruce lying on the floor on his back. He had no pulse. Raynor Ellen BrudenellBruce, the dead man’s former wife, said that after receiving a telephone call from Rutherford on the evening of February 27, she went to the Mount Albert house. PREVIOUS CASE
Rutherford told her that she did not want the police to be called because of a previous court case when Rutherford was not very helpful. “I think she said he fell out of the van or jumped out of the van,” said Mrs Brud-enell-Bruce.
“They had been to the Glen Innes Hotel and they had been having a fight and he was quite rough with her.”
Rutherford told the witness that Brudenell-Bruce had been driving the vehicle dangerously. “She had taken the keys of the van. “Brudenell-Bruce had jumped out in quite a timber. Rutherford took over the wheel. She was going very slowly and when she stopped he was lying on the ground,” said Mrs Brudenell-Bruce. Witness said the previous court case referred to concerned a charge of assault against her former husband upon Rutherford. WEEK IN HOSPITAL As a result of the incident Rutherford was admitted to hospital where she remained for almost a week. Francis John Cairns, a pathologist, said he considered Brudenell-Bruce’s death was due to head injuries. Superficial injuries were consistent with a fall from a moving vehicle. So were the fatal head injuries. Blood samples indicated that Brudenell-Bruce was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of his death.
The hearing will continue tomorrow.
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