ALLEGED MURDER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 107, 1 November 1940, Page 9

ALLEGED MURDER

CROWN'S EVIDENCE

LONGLEY COMMITTED FOR TRIAL

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

TAUMARUNUI, October 31

The hearing of the charge against Charles Harold Longley of murder of Jeremiah O'Sullivan concluded this afternoon. The accused reserved his defence and was committed for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court in Hamilton.

Eunice Sylvia Longley, aged 12, said that during an altercation at the doorway she saw her father hurry down the passage and pick up a gun as he went. She corroborated her brother's evidence.

Ethel McKenzie, married, a neighbour of the Longleys, said that they had done their utmost to secure a house. On the afternoon of the tragedy she saw the accused come through her. front gate. The accused held on to the door for support and looked very ill. Witness asked if she should ring for a doctor. The accused replied: "No, I have just blown Jerry's head off." Witness knew whom he meant. The accused then collapsed on the verandah. The accused said, "He called my wife a mongrel and lifted his hand. I picked up a rifle to frighten him. I did not know it was loaded." The accused was then very distressed. There were long pauses between his words.

James Owen Tiney, millhand and farmer, said he had known O'Sullivan for sixteen years and they helped each other on their farms. He never saw O'Sullivan in a bad temper; in fact, he was one of the best-natured men he had ever met.

Christopher Jarvis, carpenter, said he saw the accused, Longley, collapse on McKenzie's verandah as witness arrived to visit McKenzie. The witness corroborated Mrs. McKenzie's evidence about statements made by the accused, and said he also heard the accused say, in reference to O'Sullivan, "He lifted his arm as if to hit her."

This closed the evidence for the *!rown.