Depositions taken on murder charge

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33451, 5 February 1974, Page 15

Depositions taken on murder charge

A man charged with the murder of his wife, Frances Wilson Goodwin Halkett, and the attempted murder of his sister-in-law, Helen Wilson Riley, at his Bishopdale home on November 22 pleaded not guilty after the taking of depositions before Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Robert Stark Halkett, aged 57, a timber worker (Mr R. M. Godfrey), was committed Ito the Supreme Court for trial on February 14. He was remanded to Sunnyside Hospital until the trial date. Kenneth Christopher Jones, an aviation instructor with N.A.C., said that about 8.20 a.m. on November 22 he was driving along Mooray Avenue when near number 48, he saw a woman on her hands and knees in the drive. He stopped his car and asked the woman if she had had an accident. When he received no coherent reply he went up to the door of the house and knocked. The woman’s hair was matted with blood and she

had scratch marks on her I face. After receiving no reply to his knock he shouted, but still received no reply. He went back to the drive and assisted the woman into the kitchen of the house. “A man appeared from the hall and came into the kitchen. His hands were covered in blood. He was wearing pyjamas. “The man said ‘I have killed her,’ or ‘I have murdered her’,” he said. Mr Jones asked Halkett to sit down, and called the police. “The accused walked to and fro from the kitchen to the first room on the right of the hallway. Halkett said “It’s a mess in there” when he came back to the kitchen. “On one of his excursions into the bedroom I heard three distinct thumps, the first two like something hitting carpet and the third like an object hitting the floor.” Mr Jones said he did not go into the bedroom at all. Constable Geoffrey Roy Keating said he was instructed to go to 48 Mooray Avenue on the morning of November 22, arriving at 8.44 a.m. Going towards the house he noticed a pool of blood and some broken spectacles on the driveway. Mrs Riley was in the kitchen with blood on her head. The constable went into I the bedroom and after seeling the body between the [beds called for assistance, i The defendant stayed in [the kitchen during this and said nothing, he said. Detective-Sergeant A. G. I. Rodgers said he interviewed Halkett at 11.07 a.m. that day. The defendant appeared confused and his speech was very slow. During the 45 minutes of the interview there were times when the defendant said nothing for four to five minutes. The defendant made a statement. He was later interviewed by a psychiatrist and arrested and charged at 3 p.m. that day. Dr Leonard Lawrence Treadgold a qualified medical practitioner and pathologist said that the cause of death

of Mrs Halkett was “gross head injuries.” “I am of the opinion that these injuries had been inflicted by the claw hammer found by the deceased woman. The wounds were inflicted by the round head of the hammer, not the claw.” Mr Godfrey reserved his defence.