POLICE PRODUCE STATEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1938, Page 6

POLICE PRODUCE STATEMENT

(Special to the "Evenjno Post.")

NAPIER, October 26.

Included in today's evidence was a statement allegedly made to the police by the accifsed the day after the shooting of Mrs. Ayes, and which was read to the Court by DetectiyeSergeant' H. NuttalL In this statement, said Detective ■- Sergeant Nuttall, the accused said he had been keeping company with Dorothy Alice Stafford for about, two years. Recently she had told him she was in trouble and she desired an operation to be carried out. "I was dead against - this being done," the accused's statement continued. 'I argued with her for the past three months on this point, as I did not wish such a thing to take place. She was anxious she should have the operation performed and I offered to marry her. I also, told her that if she, did not wish to marry me she should go away and have the' child and I would see it was looked after. She would not consent to this. On Thursday, September 22, I rang Mrs. Ayes at Westshore. :iShe informed me it would be better If I put it off for a week. On Thursday, September 29, I again rang Mrs. Ayes at about 3 p.m. She then' said it would be all right to bring the girl in that night." ; \ , After tea that evening, the statement continued, hfe brought Miss Stafford into Napier and that night he took her to Mrs. Ayes's house at Westshore. She remained outside in the car while he went in and had a conversation- with Mrs. Ayes. He gave ,Mrs. Ayes £20. She did not give him a receipt, nor did he ask for one. On the night of Saturday, October 1, he called at, Mrs. Ayes's house, and she took him into a room where Miss Stafford was on a bed, dressed. Mrs. Ayes told him Miss Stafford /was all right to go home. On the way home to Waipawa Miss Stafford told him she had only had a partial miscarriage. He took her to her employer's home at Otane and she told him not to come back to see her until Tuesday night. He, was worried about her, however, and went to see her on the Sunday afternoon. "On arriving there I found Dorothy ill and she could not move. On taking her pulse I found it 116 to the minute; At 7 p.m. that evening I went and saw Dr. Allen. I explained everything to him." After the doctor had examined Miss Stafford he decided she should go to hospital. She did not want to go, but in the end, after being told she was very ill, she was persuaded to go. The accused returned to his home about 10 p.m., went into the bedroom, and got his Browning automatic rifle. His brother Toby was in bed; and he told him he was going to le»d the rifle to a friend. "I came along past Mrs. Ayes's house and pulled the car up about 10 yards past the big gate and left the engine running," the statement continued. "I switched off the lights and got out of the car on .the side opposite the driver's seat I had the rifle under my coat with the i trigger cocked. As I was going in the lights at Mrs. Ayes's were going off and on and dogs were barking quite a lot. As I was walking past Mrs. Ayes's window I heard someone say, 'Who's there?' I replied, 'It is I. I want to see you for a minute.' She then put. her head out of the window and said she would be there in a minute. "FIRED THE RIFLE." "I walked to the front door and stood on the path a little to the left of the door. The door was opened by a woman dressed in white. I picked it was Mrs. Ayes as soon as she opened the door. She said, 'What is wrong?' I then fired the rifle. It jammed and I.