ACQUITTED

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 35, 10 February 1926, Page 4

ACQUITTED

THE GOODMAN CASE ,

At the Supreme Court yesterday, Charles Goodman, who was charged with having committed the theft on 24th November, 1925, of the sum of £210 the property of Robert Thompson, was found not guilty by the jury after a retirement of 40 minutes, and was discharged. It was alleged that Goodman had obtained the money by inducing Thompson, who was stated to be a lunatic,, to draw the money from the Post Office Savirigs Bank.

His Honour, summing up, said that the question they had to decide was a very simple one. Did Thompson intend to make' a gift of money to the accused f If so, was he able to understand and appreciate the full effect of what he was doing? 1 If the jury decided that he did make such a gift, and that his mental condition was such that he was able to understand and appreciate what he was doing, it should acquit the accused. But if it found that his mental condition was such that ho was not capable of understanding, then the next question they had to consider was, did the accused know of that condition? Did he know that, this old man's condition was such that he could not know what he was doing? If the jury found these things combined —that the old man did not intend to make a gift and that he was not capable of understanding what he was doing in handing the money over to the accused, »arid that the accused knew of that condition —-it was the duty of the jury to convict him. The jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. •