DOULL TRIAL Evidence Of Sales Of Arsenate Of Lead

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30745, 8 May 1965, Page 3

DOULL TRIAL Evidence Of Sales Of Arsenate Of Lead

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, May 7.

. Evidence of sales of arsenate of lead made to a person signing “M. M. Doull” was given to the Supreme Court at Auckland today when the double murder charge against a 52-year-old manageress, Margaret Murray Doull, of Takanini, continued. Doull is accused of murdering her husband, Alexander George Doull, at Poroti, Whangarei, on January 30, 1952, and her sister, Janet Bell Greenhorn, at Takanini, on August 22, 1964.

The prosecution alleges both were murdered by arsenicpoisoning. Doull has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The first witness today and the twenty-third called by the Crown, David Robert Lomas, a seedsman, of Onerahi, produced a record book showing four sales of arsenate of lead to a person signing the book “M. M. Doull.”

Lomas said the purchases of arsenate of lead were made in February, 1946, March 1947, November, 1950, and January, 1955.

Cross-examined by Mr P. A. Williams, for the accused, Lomas said arsenate of lead was used as an insecticide, mainly to control codlin moth in apples. It was used as a spray for fruit trees. It was sold in powder form, the powder being dissolved in water. Usual Order Lomas said that it was sold in half-pound and pound tins. Two teaspoons were used to a gallon of water. He said the firm did not expect customers to get more than one tin every two years. Matthew William Frederick Beechey, an accountant, said his firm had handled the affairs of the Doull family since 1948. He did not consider the farm economic. The profit in 1948 was £ll5, in 1949. £Bl. 1950 showed a loss of £lO, and in 1952 there was a net profit of £2l. A similar pattern continued until 1958. He said there was other income. wages received by the accused’s husband.

Beechey said that he had several letters from the accused, including one in December, 1951, to say that the property had been transferred into her name.

Between March 31, 1951, and January 30, 1952. he had no record of the accused’s husband receiving any wages. It was possible, he said tljat his firm may not have been told of any wages during this period. “Short Of Money” A former accountant of the Whangarei branch of the Bank of New Zealand. Thomas Vivian Elliott, told the Court that in 1951 he had an interview with the accused. During this she told him that she did not think her husband had long to live. The title of the property was transferred into her name, and their joint account also went to her. At this time there was a debit of £5O The bank, he said, had a life policy of £5OO on the accused’s husband as security. This was also to be transferred to cover any advances made to the accused. The arrangements were carried out in July of that year Early in 1952 he heard the news of Doull’s death. In February, £575 on the life policy was paid into the accused's account. This included bonuses on the policy. At that time the account was

carrying a debit balance of £lO2. The money extinguished the overdraft. Cross-examined by Mr Williams, Elliott said that for the years he acted as banker the Doulls were in difficult financial straits. They were definitely short of money after Doull’s death. An assistant-registrar of the Social Security Department, Stanley Halliday, gave the Court records of payments by the department to the Doull family from 1944. He said that in 1949 the family was getting £ll 10s a week, with some variations, depending on part-time employment. The family was getting £lO 15s a week in 1951. On Doull’s death, the payments dropped by £1 17s 6d a week, to make a total of £9 2s 6d. Later increases by 1957 brought the total up to £ll 15s. Warning To Jury Mr Justice Boys reminded the jury after lunch that the witness Halliday ‘‘answering a i question which he wasn’t asked allowed himself to observe that the accused's marriage to Jackson after which she went to Australia was bigamous.” “That bigamy was committed by the man Jackson, he being not free to marry Mrs Doull,” said his Honour

He said he had the express approval of all counsel to tell the jury this, and that the police and prosecuting authorities would have the jury know that the accused was unaware of the fact that Jackson was already married. This bigamy was nothing to do with the present case, said the judge. Earl Craig Neil Grey, medical officer at Oakley Hospital, said that Mrs Greenhorn was an inmate at the hospital for about a month last year. She was discharged “well enough to take her place in the world again” on February 11.

“Very Rare Case” Grey said that a further period in hospital might have improved her mental capacity but Mrs Greenhorn did not accept a suggestion that she should become a voluntary patient. On her discharge she was cheerful but with a “flattened range of emotions.” Cross-examined by the Soli-citor-General (Mr H. R. C. Wild) who with Mr D. S. Beattie is prosecuting. Greysaid a suicide in Mrs Greenhorn’s type of case was “excessively rare.” Mr Williams asked: If a person has been suffering a mental disorder for many years, do you consider a mental institution can work some I improvement in one month? Grey: It can so improve a patient that ordinary social life is possible. Richard Henry Burrell, a psychiatrist, said he saw Mrs Greenhorn on March 4 and diagnosed that she was in a schizophrenic residual state, “a sort of mental scarring" which often followed schizophrenic illness.

Burrell said he prescribed a tranquilliser with no arsenic content in very wide use._ He said that suicide in this type of case was very rare. Cyril Raymond Whitehead, a storemen, of Takanini, said Doull moved into a flat next door to his house in January last year. After a little while she was joined by Mrs Greenhorn whom he knew as “Jenny.”

Whitehead said Mrs Greenhorn spent most of the time at the flat.

“We were given to understand Mrs Greenhorn was a very sick woman and did not want to see anybody and did not want to be disturbed by anybody," said Whitehead. At first, he thought Mrs Greenhorn appeared to be in good health, but after some time he noticed that she was not going out as much. A short time after this he heard vomiting in the flat. Australian Visitor Whitehead said that' a fortnight or a month before Mrs Greenhorn died the accused mentioned that she had a friend coming over from Australia, but she could not get this friend over because Jenny was at the flat and there was no room.

“I think she spoke of trying to get Jenny away,” said Whitehead. “There was something about Jenny not wanting to go.” After Mrs Greenhorn died, a man arrived at the flat one evening and was introduced to him as a very good friend of the accused. He was at the flat about a fortnight.

Elizabeth Gail Fulton, a shop assistant in a Papakura seed store, said she recognised an invoice book used in the shop. Her writing was on an invoice dated March 23, 1964, which showed a cash sale of one tin of arsenate of lead valued at 3s 6d. A signature at the bottom read “M. M. Doull.” Miss Fulton said this signature was not in her writing and she could not remember that particular sale. She knew the accused because she worked in the shop opposite. The trial will continue on Monday.