Woman guilty of manslaughter

Press, 26 November 1980, Page 3

Woman guilty of manslaughter

PA Wellington After a retirement of 40 minutes, a High Court jury in Wellington found Ivy May Reynish, aged 64, a pensioner, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

Reynish had been charged with murdering her husband, James Joseph Reynish at their Upper Hutt home on September 10. The Chief Justice, Sir Ronald Davison, remanded her for sentence at a date to be fixed and said that in his view the jury’s finding was a very proper one. Opening the case for the defence, Mr M, A. Bungay said the Crown evidence was accepted and there was no contest of fact, but because of provocation the accused should be acquitted of murder and found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Evidence was called that she married in 1934. There were eight children of the marriage and there, were frequent moves by the fam-

ily, on an average of once a year, because her husband found it hard to settle into one job. He had something like 50 jobs in the last 16 years. She was left to raise the large family single-handed. She proved a good mother, and was not violent. After his retirement, her husband had the habit of going to the hotel every morning and returning late in the evening six days a week. She had a strong suspicion she could be suffering from cancer and was due to enter hospital for investigation and possibly therapy. There was a clear impression in her mind that she was suffering from cancer which ran in her family. It had a profound effect on her and made her depressed. Her husband had taken a very callous attitude when he said it served her right. That caused her to lose control of herself and go berserk with an axe.