DYING DEPOSITIONS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 117, 11 February 1926, Page 6

DYING DEPOSITIONS

ADMISSIBILITY QUESTIONED By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, February 10. When Amy Glenn was charged in the Supreme Court to-day with having procured abortion, legal objections were raised by her counsel (Mr. C. S. Thomas) to the admissibility, as evidence, of the dying depositions of the girl Myrtle Veronica Thompson. These depositions were taken before Mr. Young, S.M., in the presence of accused, and during the latter part of the hearing, Mr. Hall (accused’s solicitor) was present. Hall, in evidence to-day, said he had had no opportunity to cross-examine the girl, and as she was obviously on the point of death, he could not have crossquestioned her even had the opportunity been given. The statement of Mr. Hall that he had no opportunity to cross-examine was denied by other witnesses, who said that the' Magistrate asked Mr. Hall whether he wished to address any questions to the girl. Mr. Thomas objected to the admission of the depositions on another ground. He claimed that they were irregular, in that the captions they bore seemed to show that the proceedings in the Lower Court and at the hospital were all part of the same hearing on the same occasion, which they were not. The hearing was adjourned.