BOY FOR TRIAL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 97, 20 January 1944, Page 6

BOY FOR TRIAL

Alleged Plot To Kill Household ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, January 19. Ah amazing story of a 15-year-old’ boy’s alleged plot to exterminate a whole household was unfolded by. the police today in the case in which Allan Joseph Pope was charged with attempting to murder Muriel Marguerita Robertson, widow, of Nelson, at the home of her son-in-law,'Arthur Gordon Roberts, of Ward, on October 4. " The police evidence was that with what he thought was one. victim to his credit the boy’s nerve failed him, and instead of setting out for Invercargill to rescue a friend from Borstal, he made a confession to the postmistress at Ward and waited for the police to come and arrest him. In a statement to Detective-Sergeant Hayhurst, Nelson, which was put in as evidence, accused said that what he did was the result of an agreement with another boy with whom he had .got into trouble in Wellington, , that if either should be put into’ an institution the other would do his utmost to tree him. Last July his friend was sent to Borstal, while Pope was placed by the child welfare officer with Roberts, by whom he was treated like one of the family. Almost immediately, however, Pope began to plan how to get rid of the Roberts household, finally deciding on poison, his statement continued. An attempt to procure potassium cyanide under the pretext that he was interested in entomology failed, but Mrs. Robertson lent him a bottle of oil of Wintergreen as he told her he had rheumatism. Taking advantage of the absence of Mr. and Mrs. Roberts in Blenheim on October 4, he poured the poison into soup being prepared for the evening meal which Mrs. .Robertson had asked him to give an eye to. However, the scheme was discovered because the odour was so strong that Mrs. Robertson smelt it immediately she came back to the kitchen. As neither Mrs. Roberts nor Mrs. Robertson took soup he had had to cast about for another weapon to silence them, and had decided on a large spanner used tor breaking up coal. This he obtained during the morning of October 4 and carried it about with him awaiting an opportunity to use it. This came after lunch when Mrs. Robertson was bending over the refrigerator. He struck her three times, and then ran upstairs and stole two £1 notes and some silver from her room. Next he broke open a storeroom in a detached house where he slept and made a parcel of tinned foods such as condensed milk and spaghetti. He tried to catch Mr. Roberts’s hack, with the intention of riding toward Breton and burgling a few houses on the way. thus obtaining money for the trip south. The horse would not be caught, however, and Pope, realizing. that he could not get very far on a bicycle and there being no train till next day, decided to give himself up, and rode to Ward post office for that purpose. . " It had been his intention on reaching Invercargill to try to smuggle some nitroglycerine, which he kn6w how to make, to his mate, so that he might blast his way out of Borstal, the statement proceeded. Before he left Mr. Roberts's house he left a note for him stating that he did not know what made him do what he had done. , Something in the Soup. In evidence Mrs. Robertson testified that Pope had been well treated by. his employer. One day Pope complained of rheumatism, and witness offered him a bottle of oil of Wintergreen, warning him that it was poisonous, On October--4 Mr. and IMrs. Roberts went to Blenheim for the day, leaving her and Pope alone on the farm. The day was wet, and Pope was in the house. There was a pot of soup on the electric stove, and when witness went upstairs she asked Pope to give the soup an occasional stir. When she returned /to the kitchen the room was full of fumes. The soup was intended for the evening meal when the Roberts’s would have returned. Witness tasted the soup, which was dreadful. The accused. claimed that if there was anything in it it must. have got there by accident.

After lunch Pope, who had gone outside, returned to the kitchen for a drink of water. She next remembered lying on the floor and heard somebody running' upstairs. She bad no reason to suspect that Pope would attack her. Arthur Gordon Roberts said Pope came to him from the Child Welfare Department last July. His behaviour was excellent. Pope asked if Roberts would be agreeable to his having a shotgun, but witness refused, as he was under 16. Pope experimented with'invisible inks, and witness understood he was corresponding with a friend in Borstal. Witness identified a large spanner as one used for breaking up coal. Alleged Admission.

Nola Fay McAlpine said Pope.walked into the post office at Ward early on the afternoon of October 4 and asked where the nearest police station was. When informed of it he said: “Tell them to send the van. There has been a murder committed up the road.” She asked “Who,” and he replied, “Mrs. Robertson.”

Witness asked: “Who did it?” and accused, replied, “I did.” He appeared quite normal. Later he said he didn’t know Why the hell he’d done it. Constable Bourke said Pope declared he had hit Mrs. Robertson with a spanner three times. On reaching Roberts’s house, the police party found Mrs. Robertson lying on the floor of the kitchen gravely wounded about the head. On the kitchen floor witness found a bottle similar to the one which Mrs. Robertson in evidence had identified as having contained oil of Wintergreen. After evidence had been heard accused pleaded not guilty and was committed for trial, his counsel, Mr. Mae Nab, intimating that he would like him examined by a psychiatrist in Wellington.