‘Kill and bury threat’

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 4

‘Kill and bury threat’

A Tirnaru man, in the j course of attempting a recon-1 ciliation with his de facto I wife, had told her that he I was going to kill her and II then bury her, Mr K. W. , Frampton, S.M., was told in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Donald Arthur Shaw, aged 39, unemployed, who admit- j ted a charge of assaulting , a female at Tirnaru on September 20, was convicted and remanded on bail of $l5OO to October 9 for a probation re- : port and sentence. . Sergeant K. J. Humdell ' said the complainant had 1 known the defendant for : many years and until recent- 1 ly had lived with him as his < de facto wife. The defendant had attempted to effect a reconciliation j : and it had been arranged that 11

[they would go to a Tirnaru [restaurant for a meal. ! Sergeant Hurndell said, 'however, that Shaw had driIven to an isolated spot outside Tirnaru. Shaw had told the woman that he had a rifle in the car boot as well as a shovel. He said he intended to kill her, bury her and that night kill himself as well, said Sergeant Hurndell. The complainant had dissuaded the defendant from this course of action and the pair had then gone back to Shaw’s house in Tirnaru where the complainant had spent the night. Next day, said Sergeant Hurndell, the woman asked Shaw if she was free to leave

and was told she could if [she wanted to. As she was about to leaxe i Shaw prevented her by grab bing her by the arm. The woman pulled free and ran towards the gate screaming and calling for help. Af ter a struggle Shaw dragged the woman along the path by her arms back to the house. Sergeant Hurndell said she received injuries to the hand and to her knees. The pair had then travelled to Christchurch where they had been located by the police. Counsel (Mr M. J. Glue) said with regard to the as sault that the complainant had only received minor injuries, and that in spite of the police summary his client had only been charged with assault and not with abduction.