Cambridge murder case evidence heard

Press, 9 February 1983, Page 15

Cambridge murder case evidence heard

PA Hamilton The scene of an alleged murder by a Cambridge boy was disturbed before the police arrived, the High Court at Hamilton has heard.

The boy, aged 13. whose name is suppressed in the interim, is accused of murdering a Cambridge girl, aged 8. at Cambridge on September 17 last year. He appears before Mr Justice Bisson and a jury. Mr C. Q. M. Almayo appears for the Crown and Mr R. A. Houston, Q.C., with him, Mr J. J. O’Shea, for the accused.

Detective Sergeant W. M. Joyce said that he had found in a Cambridge home two washed knives on the top of a cutlery drawer and a bloodstained scatter rug on the servery. He said it was of grave concern to him that before

the arrival of the police a number of persons had entered the house and the scene was disturbed. The Court was told that the mother of the dead girl had been admitted to the hospital with a breakdown and her written evidence was read to the Court. In the statement she said she returned home from shopping during the afternoon and found her daughter with a cut throat, lying on a rug on the lounge floor.

The child was still alive and she was putting her into her car to go to a doctor’s surgery when she noticed a boy she thought was the accused, peering round the side of the house, the Court heard.

Attempts by a doctor to revive the girl were unsuccessful. the Court was told.

A neighbour of the dead girl said she had gone into

the house and washed a bloodstained knife, lying on the lounge floor and another she had found in the kitchen. She had also lifted a bloodstained scatter rug from the floor and took it to the kitchen with the intention of soaking it but had been unable to find a bucket, she said.

A pathologist. Dr B. A. Russell, gave evidence of an examination of the dead girl at Waikato Hospital mortuary. He considered she had died from a stab wound through the heart and a deep cut across the throat. The throat wound was consistent with more than one cut, he said.

The accused’s father said his son told him he had tried to kill the girl and had used a knife, but denied fighting or wanting to have sex with her.

(Proceeding)