DEATH OF INFANT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 116, 18 May 1944, Page 6

DEATH OF INFANT

TRIAL

WOMAN_ON MEDICAL EVIDENCE P.A. WANGANUI, May 17. The trial of Grace Rosaline Robertson, 26, adding machine operator, on i a charge of murdering her infant son, aged 14 days, near Mangaweka on December 18 was continued today. The case is being tried before Mr. Justice Smith. Mr. N. R. Bain is Crown Prosecutor, and Mr. J. Goldstine, Auckland, is appearing for the accused. A brother of the accused, James Robertson, plumber, Dargaville, said that the accused did not have companionship as a child. Mr. Goldstine: Was her home life what one would call happy? Witness: Not altogether. The witness added that his mother had very strong religious convictions which dominated the home and caused division. The accused was wrought between the two opinions. The witness could not recall any of the accused's friends being invited home nor was she allowed to take part in any organised sport or go to pictures. Every other member of the family had been brought up as Open Brethren, but the mother had later joined the Exclusive Brethren and the teachings of this more rigid sect were applied to the accused's upbringing. Medical evidence was called by the defence. Dr. George H. Robertson said he was of the opinion that at the time the incident occurred the girl was suffering from puerperal insanity. "On that particular night this girl was so far out of her mind as to have no power of reasoning or understanding of what she was doing," said the witness. She was also in a state of economic insecurity and, travelling from place to place, was cut off from her parents, friends, and the father of the child. No mother who was normal mentally and physically could do as much as the accused had done 14 days after the birth of the child, said the witness, adding that he had gone over with the accused incidents during the train journey on December 18. "I went over this with her several times and am quite satisfied that the memory of the actual disposal of the baby is buried deep in her mind and cannot be got at by ordinary means," said the witness. "This is quite in line with the whole disease as I can see it. The fact that she contemplated suicide, though she did not actually commit it, is also consistent with this condition." Mr. Goldstine: What would you say about the removal of the baby's clothes? Witness: I questioned her very closely for some time, but was unable to get any memory in her mind, and she stuck to her story as described in her evidence." The Court adjourned till tomorrow.