18-YEAR-OLD ON MURDER CHARGE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31178, 30 September 1966, Page 14

18-YEAR-OLD ON MURDER CHARGE

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, Sept. 28. An 18-year-old shopkeeper who appeared in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court today on a charge of murder is alleged to have kept asking: “What have I done, what have I done?” when he arrived at Oakley Hospital shortly after the incident.

Before the court was James El win •David Dynster, aged 18, who is charged with the murder of his mother, Lyle Fraser Dunster, aged 52, at Auckland on August 24.

Mrs Dunster*s body was found in her burning Herne Bay flat on August 24.

The preliminary hearing today was before Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M.

Mr D. S. Morris appeared for the Crown, and today called 21 witnesses. He told the Magistrate at the start of the hearing that he would probably call between 20 and 25 witnesses.

Mr M. D. Robinson appeared for Dunster.

Mrs Maria Rose Hensley told the Court that she had known Mrs Dunster and her son for about 11 years. On Wednesday, August 24, she saw Dunster come into Mr Ryan’s grocery store, pick up three bottles of turpentine, tell Mr Ryan to put them

on his mother’s account and then leave the store. Mrs Hensley said that a few minutes later Dunster ran back into the shop and told Mr Ryan to call the police as he had shot his mother — “which I didn’t believe” added witness. SAT WEEPING

Dr. Danuta Elizbieta Pollard said she was on duty at Oakley Hospital on August 24.

When she first saw Dunster he was sitting weeping and kept repeating: “What have I done, what have I done? I have murdered my mother and my girl friend and set fire to the house.”

A Queen street shop assistant, Martin Keith Coe, employed by W. H. Tisdall, Ltd., said Dunster bought a secondhand semi-automatic shotgun and 12 No. 4 shot cartridges from him on August 24. After hearing both counsel in chambers before the hear-

ing, the Magistrate ordered the suppression of all the evidence of Brian Arthur Jacobsen, a real estate salesman for Charles Belton, Ltd.

When Jacobsen came forward to give evidence Mr Robinson objected to the publication of this evidence relating to a second incident. An order suppressing this was issued. BRIGADE CALLED Norman William Golding, senior station officer, Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board, said the brigade answered a fire call at 12.07 p.m. on August 24. Arriving at No. 2A Herne Bay road, he spoke to a policeman, then went upstairs to the second storey of the block of fiats. He found a corridor full of smoke. He donned breathing apparatus and felt his way along the passage. “I went through what appeared to be a doorway,” he said. “I came into contact with what appeared to be a bookcase, then a pair of legs. “Feeling further, I found it was a person, who appeared to be reclining in a chair.” DRAGGED BODY

With the assistance of another fireman, he dragged the body along the corridor to another balcony. He gave orders to have the body placed on a salvage sheet. While doing this the body slipped to one side, and replacing it Golding said he noticed his hands were covered with blood. Golding returned to the flat, where the fire had been put out. He produced two bottles of turpentine which he said he found on a kitchen bench in the flat. Cross-examined, he said clothing on the body had not been damaged by the fire, but one hand had fairly bad burns.