Woman became ‘very moody, agitated’

Press, 8 June 1989, Page 27

Woman became ‘very moody, agitated’

PA Palmerston North A woman accused of murdering a man became “violent, very moody and agitated” before menstruating, a witness said in the High Court at Palmerston North. The accused woman later told the police that she did not mean to kill the man, who died after a stabbing incident when, it was said, she was premenstrual.

Condesa Mary Ranger, aged 25, pleaded not guilty before Mr Justice Jeffries to a charge of murdering Roger Michael Transom at Taihape on November 3, 1987. Mrs Jeanette Tuaine, of Taihape, told the Court under cross-examination from the defence counsel, Mr Mike Lance, Q.C., that over the three or four years she had known Ranger they spoke frequently about her medical problem. Ranger exhibited the symptoms "each month, and every month the week before her period was due.” “She had a lot of trouble when it was due. She said she felt very

violent and bad-tempered sometimes, and she got very moody, even with me,” Mrs Tuaine said. Ms Kelly Mudgway, aged 18, of Taihape, said she was babysitting Ranger’s children on November 3. Some time after Ranger returned home, a fight developed. Ms Mudgway said she went home next door, and later saw Ranger run from the front door of her house. Then she saw Mr Transom climb the fence between the two houses. He was bleeding badly from a wound in his right arm and asked her and her boyfriend to ring for an ambulance. Constable John McGregor, of Taihape, said Ranger identified the knife used to stab Mr Transom, and said: “It was either him or me. He was threatening to kill me with a gun.” “It was my impression she had been drinking heavily. She was unsteady. She said the argument happened when she asked Transom why he treated her kids like he did, that there was no excuse to treat them to mental abuse,” Constable

McGregor said. Ranger told the constable she had “gone off her rocker,” and “he did too." “We started to hit each other. I don’t know what happened. I think I lost control. I went to the kitchen and got the knife and stabbed him in the arm. I think I did it in frustration,” he said that she had told him. "When Ranger learned later via police car radio that Transom was in a serious condition in Taihape Hospital, and was not expected to live, she broke down and started yelling how she did not want to kill him, or hurt him that much, and that she loved him,” Constable McGregor said. She was crying and very upset. A Wanganui Area Health Board pathologist, Dr Samuel Chan, said the wound extended through the upper arm, through the armpit and into the chest cavity.

“I concluded that the man died from massive bleeding in the right chest cavity from a stabbing through the right lung,” he said.