Man To Stand Trial On Murder Charge

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32252, 21 March 1970, Page 8

Man To Stand Trial On Murder Charge

William George Colthorpe, aged 46, a production supervisor (Mr B. J. Drake), was committed to the Supreme Court for trial when he pleaded not guilty before Mr W. F. Brown, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday to a charge of murdering his wife, Phyllis Agnes Colthorpe, on February 6.

The last of the 22 witnesses for the Crown were called by Mr N. W. Williamson. Mr Drake made no submissions and reserved his defence. Detective Sergeant Neville John Stokes said in evidence that when he interviewed the accused at 1.55 a.m. on February 7 he told the accused that his wife was dead. The accused replied, “I would be surprised if she isn’t.” After being given the customary warning the accused said: “That’s all right. I just hit her with a hammer.” Asked the reason for his actions, the accused said: “A little bit of family playing up. . . . I’ve been playing up with another woman.” The accused told the witness he went to the Groynes to talk the matter over with his wife. He said he found he had no feeling for her whatsoever. It was not a sudden development. It had been growing for years. The accused told the witness his wife said she would not give him up and wanted

to bring about a reconciliation.

“Grabbed Hammer”

“She suggested we get out of the van and we sat on the grass and had a few drinks. She started getting amorous. I grabbed a hammer from the van and that was. it. ... I just started hitting her with the hammer until I stopped.” He said he “did not have a clue” how many times he hit her.

Asked if he had any thoughts while he was hitting her, he said: “Nothing. Nothing. My mind was completely blank. I don’t mean by that I didn’t know I was hitting her. I knew all right.” The witness said he asked the accused what he intended to do with the body. He replied: “I don’t know. I had a crazy idea of taking her to work and throwing her into the furnace. ... I was a bit worried, though, that the fluid from the body might short the elements.” The accused was arrested at 5.15 a.m. and charged with the murder of his wife, said Detective Sergeant Stokes.

The witness said he interviewed the accused again on February 9 and told him Dorothy Pearl Thompson had been arrested and charged with being an accessory after the fact. (Publication of the evidence relating to the witness’s further conversation with the accused on what Mrs Thompson had told him was suppressed on Mr Drake’s application.)

“He told me how he loved Mrs Thompson and how he had never known love like that before. He said: ‘I just had to have her. I tried to talk Phyllis into leaving, but she wouldn’t go. There was no other way for it I didn’t think I could go through with it I didn’t want to.’ ” Analyst’s Evidence

Norman Patrick Alcorn, a Government analyst with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, gave evidence of his analysis of a blood sample taken from the body of Mrs Colthorpe and of blood stained articles given to him by the police.

Mr Alcorn said blood stains found on a 211 b hammer, a pair of shoes, white socks, black polythene sheet, bedspread tapestry and drinking I glass were of type groups O and M. Blood of the same type groups was found on samples of grass twigs and soil, and in a grey van. The blood sample supplied by the police from Mrs Colthorpe’s body was of the same type group. Dr Leonard Lawrence Treadgold, a registered medical practitioner and pathologist, said he examined the body of a woman at the Christchurch Hospital mortuary about 3 a.m. on February 7. He formed the opinion that she had died four to six hours earlier. He said there were numerous abrasions, bruises and contused lacerations on both temples and the upper part of the face and top of the head. He formed the opinion that they had been caused by at least 10 heavy blows about the face and head. Later that morning he performed a post-mortem examination on the body of the woman who had been identified as Phyllis Agnes Colthorpe. He found a total of eight bruises and abrasions about the face and head and 14 lacerations. The whole front of the skull and upper facial bones were extensively fractured. “In my opinion the cause of death was severe lacerations and haemorrhaging of the brain associated with severe head injuries,” he said. “The external injuries could have been caused by the engineer’s hammer found in the van. It appeared she had been struck at least 18 severe blows to the head and face,” he said.