TRIAL OF MANLY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 38, 13 August 1930, Page 9

TRIAL OF MANLY

CEOWN CASE COMPLETED!

"NO EVIDENCE OF INSANITY*

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WANGANUI, This Day.

The Crown evidence in the trial of! Herbert Frederick Manly for the niurder of Gladys Barrington Cromarty1 at Wanganui was concluded yesterday* and the Crown Prosecutor addressed the Court.

Detective Walsh, after describing thai finding of the body on 9th May, identified a letter which Mr. Bain (Crow*. Prosecutor) said Manly had written. %o his mother and father. Witness sfdd.he had received it from the Inspector o£ Police at Wanganui about a week ago, with a file of papers relating to Manly'a antecedents. The inquiries had beea made by the Surrey police.

Mr. Treadwell said he would protest, against the letter being put in. His Honour stated that he would liotj let the contents of the letter go to tha jury.

Mr. Bain said his object in producing the letter was to establish the data upon which it was posted from Wanganui. •■• • The letter was not admitted. Amongst the papers found on thS accused at the polieo station was, * pawn ticket having the name "H. Manly, New Zealander Hotel," upon it, which' showed that he had pawned a five-ston^' diamond ring with W. Smart for iiS. The ring, which was. produced, and which had been obtained by the Wellington police, had been identified by, Mrs. Cromarty. A letter was then react by witness. He could not decipher the date, and Mr. Treadwell said he had. worked it out as having been written, on Thursday, Ist May. The letter implored Gladys to t take the engagement; ring back, and stated that the accused's love for her had preyed on his brain. It was signed, "Your Broken-hearted Lover, Bert." Mr. Bain said there were a number of other letters, but na good.purpose could be served by putting them in. Addressing the jury, Mr. Bain said that .the facts were neither ■ long nor; complicated. "This man is in a most unfortunate position," he said. "He:;is i danger of losing his life, and it has been the duty of the Crown to bring not only the evidence against him, but'an}' evidence we could find in his favour. You will have no difficulty in, coming to the conclusion that this girl Gladys Barrington Cromarty was murdered. It is for you to ask yourselves whether Manly did murder her, and the second, question you have to decide is whether: he had any intention ,of killing hex. You will find no difficulty in determining that. She died through a cut throat, and you must ask yourselves whether the accused did it. Mr. Bain briefly reviewed the evidence by the Crown, which he said showed the conduct of the accused up to the date o£ the girl's death and subsequent to it. "These two people met in January, 1930, and became engaged," he said.- "Then because of something which at the moment we do not know she broke off the engagement and returned tuo ring, and you know what he. did with that ring. The letters he "wroto ar? significant in themselves. You will have noj difficulty in deciding that when the engagement was broken he was a brokenhearted man. In one letter written to the sister Dora 4tP nl gaol in Wellington he says: \E've not written home since April. It's been, a hard, enough fight to write to you. . . This I can say, what I did was in love and jealousy and not hate. When I was repeatedly told to forget her and not Worry I could not, and I don't believe ever I could have done.' This was a letter written to the sister of this girl on the Bth July, two months.after the commission of the offence," if he did commit it. I suggest to you that he did commit it, and that he was sane, because he says he did it in jealousy and not hate. There is,no evidence of insanity in this case, and no evidence of insobriety." ■ . ,

His Honour: "Of course, Mr. Bain, I will direct the jury that according to our law a man is sane until he is proved otherwise."

The Court then adjourned until 10 o'clock this morning, when Mr. W. JTreadwell will address the jury. It is expected that his address will last twek hours. . '.' '