Police confirm charges against Sydney doctor

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33773, 20 February 1975, Page 1

Police confirm charges against Sydney doctor

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, February 19.

The police confirmed today that 12 charges laid in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday related to abortions carried out at the Remuera abortion clinic by Dr J. Woolnough, of Sydney.

Mr R. C. Clough, legal adviser to the Auckland Medical Aid Trust, which runs the clinic, said he spoke to two police officers about noon today because the policemen could not find the clinic’s director, Dr R. B. Hunton.

He said the policemen told him the charges all related to Dr Woolnough.

Dr Woolnough advised the Medical Aid Trust when the clinic was established in May last year. Mr Clough said the charges

related to operations performed about that time. He would not divulge the ; dates of the operations, because many women who had had abortions on the dates, > but who would not be called

as witnesses, could become anxious.

“I presume that all the girls who will be called as witnesses know quite well what’s coming up,” Mr Clough said. No date yet Dr Woolnough would return to New Zealand voluntarily, and Mr W. L. Brown, Q.C., would be his counsel, said Mr Clough. The next move would be the setting of a date for a lower court hearing. Dr Woolnough was quite prepared to face prosecution, the “Sydney Daily Mirror” said in a front-page article. “A test case seems to be the only way of clearing the confusion in the law relating to abortions in New Zealand,” said the doctor, Dr Jim Woolnough. Going “quietly” Dr Woolnough was told by the police that he could go voluntarily to New Zealand, or be extradited. "My choice was to go quietly or be shoved. I chose to go quietly,” he said.