ACCUSED’S EVIDENCE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31343, 13 April 1967, Page 3

ACCUSED’S EVIDENCE

TMs morning Hooper denied that the story be told detectives of Ms wife’s death on December 31 wu true. Hooper said that Detective Senior-Sergeant J. W. Wooden kept calling Mm a liar as he tried to make Ms statement so he made up a story to satisfy him. Hooper said that after friends attending a party at Ms home on the night of December 30J1 had left, only he and Ms wife and two friends —Miss Margaret Smith and “Johnny” Johnson remained.

He carried some food into the kitchen and started to peel some onions. "My wife stood and didn’t do anything except to say, 'Well, get on with tt.’ 1 started to cut the meat, and she started to say to me, ‘Well, he’s in bed now. It’s just the right time to go and see her.* She wm referring to the woman acrora the road. TMs was becauM if I eame home late from work she would think I was out with another woman, when, in fact I’m not a woman chraer. Beer Thrown

"She started to get wild and boh ma on the back,” Hooper said. "She threw a glara of beer over me, which was one of the unusual tilings for her to do because she could never stop drinking it Then I went into my room.” Hooper said he changed into pyjamM and lay on Ms bed reading a comic. He called to his wife several times but there wm no reply. He went to the kitehen. "There wm a knife sticking in her stomach and she wm lying on the floor. I went over to her and Mid, *Yes, you mug, you will do such a thing, you stupid girl.’ “TheyTl Blame Me”

“I knelt down and put my anna round her and pulled her over to me. I had my left chert against her mouth and •he was breathing. Then all of a sudden, she stopped breathing. I slowly Wdher down and straightened her out because she had been all hunched over.

"I turned and mw the handle of the knife. I aaid, ‘Aaah,* and pulled it out and threw it on the floor. I thougM to myself, ‘She shouldn’t have done that TheyTl blame me m sure m God made little apples.* So I picked up the knife again and threw it out the hart door. R Mt a hedge and dropped to the ground and I went out and picked it up again and put it in the hedge. "I went hart inside and then because my hands were so bloody from holding her, I went to the sink to wash them.

“There is a big knife wMch has been said to have caused ail the wounds, but it couldn't have because I then went and took it out of the cupboard. I stuck it into my wife’s body.

But tt bent, and after trying to straighten tt I stuck tt under her left breast.” Hooper said he then went to call Margaret Smith, and later called the police. * In reply to Mr Petrie he said that he told a police sergeant and later Detective P. R. Callanan that his wife had killed herself. He had not mentioned the knife in the hedge. Statement Taken Hooper raid Detective Senior Sergeant J. W. Wooder Mked Mm: “Why did you do it?” When he said he had not killed Ms wife, the detective called Mm a liar.

When taking the statement the detective started by raying, “How many times did you stick her? Three or four?” “1 said, ‘Oh no, half a dozen.* Just like that Just to shut Mm up,” Hooper said.

Asked by Mr Petrie to look at the writing and signature on the statement Hooper said: “I only signed my name. I don’t know about the other stuff. I wouldn’t have written. This hM been read to me and tt is true and correct* It wm a lot of bullswool.”

Asked by Mr Petrie to spell the word “correct” Hooper made two attempts. On his first ho got the letter “C” and the second time “Cer”. "Sony, I cant spell tt,” he said. Repeated Story

As Mr Petrie read the statement, Hooper said that phrases such as “let her have it” and “gave her one right in tin middle” were contrary to Ms way of speaking. Hooper said he told the “same story” about Ms wife’s death to three doctors to save further questioning from the police. T had no worries, I knew I wm in the dear,” he Mid. "If I wanted to do my wife in, why stick ddit or nine cute into her body?” Mr Petrie: Did you kill your wife?—l definitely did not

Thought It Suicide Cross-examined by Mr Greeson, Hooper said he discovered Ms wife in the Mtchen with a knife in her etomart. Asked how the knife got into her body. Hooper replied: "That’s a good question. I have tried to figure tt out” Hooper said he thought Ms

wife had committed suicide as she wm always threatening to "cut her own throat” and saying she wished she were dead. Mr Gresson: Did tt occur to you to call a doctor when you found your wife in the kitchen?—Yes. I rang the hospital but got no reply. Questioned about the statement, Hooper said Detective Senior-Sergeant Wooders had asked questions “and put down his own answers." Parts of the statement were true, but he had realised he (Hooper), had to “tell a story.”