SAWYERS BAY SHOOTING CASE

Evening Star, Issue 15481, 1 May 1914, Page 6

SAWYERS BAY SHOOTING CASE

CHARGE OP ATTEMPTED MURDER AGAINST G~~H. GREEN. George Havelock Green was brought before Mr J. R Bartholomew, S.M„ at the Police Court this morning, and charged that on the 22nd of March, 1914, at Sawyers Bay, he attempted to commit murder by discharging a loaded revolver at Eleanor Maud Green (his wife). The aca.sed had ho counsel.

Sub-inspector Fouhy conducted the prosecution.

; Eleanor Maud Green said ehe had been married 10 years. She got a reparation from her husband a year ago. They had five children, four of whom were in an orphanage and one lived with her. Since the order was granted the accused had been arrested three times for failing to maintain her. On the 22nd Marcli she was _ housekeeper for Herbert Perry, a married nran, at Sawyers Bay. About 3 o'clock on March 22 she was sitting in rhe kitchen of Mr Perry's house with her little boy, aged seven years. The boy went to the door, and said his father was there. Witneea went to the door, and asked her liL'sband in. She asked him to have a cup of tea, Mr Perry was having tea with her. Her husband refused to have tea, bnt took a drink ot water. Mr Perry went out, ami left accused, Hie_boy, and witness in the kitchen. Her husband asked her if she was going to live with Mm again. He asked her to go for a walk, as ho had something to talk over with her. She did not go, but stayed in the kitchen. He again asked her if sh-.i would go back to him, but she told him he had no home. He had his hand in his right coat pocket, and sho saw him take a revolver out aad fire three shots. The first shot hit her, but she did not know where. The second one hit her on the head. She had her hand up to her head. After she got the second shot she lay in tha corner. /The third shot struck "her, but she could not say where. After the first shot the boy left, and when she regained consciousness the accused had a razor in his hand. She could not say whether it was open or not. The boy had returned by this time, and she took him out, and they got into the kitchen of A'lx Mam's house. She crawled in and lay down on a bed. From, the time her husband fired the first shot until she got out of the house he did not speak. Ha made no attempt on her with the razor, bho saw Inm about a week before in the court. When they were living together her hushed said that if ever he killed himself he would kill her too, so that no one could get her. The accused was a barber by trade. Her wounds were tinted at Mam's, and Dr Borrie arrived afterwards She was taken to the Dunedin Hospital. Her jaw was broken by one of the shots, and was not quite right

Asked if ho had any question to put to witness accused said: "You remember when we lived at Palmerston North. Did 1 not then suffer from mental depression?" — (( that T know of." "Bid I ever ask you in the North Island to.hide my razors as I was afraid of kilhnji myself?"—" You used to threaten to kill me." Witness said, in reply to a further question, that his children were afraid of him.

Accused questioned witness at length as to his business engagements, and said, wiien_ asked .by His Worship what his questions had to do with the case, that w- was 6omeone behind it all. said it was not out of vinaictiveness that she had him arrested in connection with maintenance, frat because the orphanage was threatening to put the ij^L 1 into tIK Ind i»trial School. He would have been just as well in gaol, as he was no good to her and her children in any ca.=e. It was not true that she had ehown him pictures of nude women while she was at Perry's. It was accused who carried such pictures about with him', and showed them to her.

Accused: Do you remember that when I charged you at Perry's with unfaithfulness you couid not deny it, but hung your head, blushed with shame, and could" not answer.—Witness <said it was not true, and that accused knew it was not true. To Sub-inspector Fouhy: She could not say whether accused was jealous of her being at Perry's. He was three or four years older. Dr Wm. Henry Borrie, of Port Chalmers, said he remembered Majrch 22, when he received a message from Sawyers Bay. He went, and found"Mtb Green lying on~a i bed in Main's house. The wounds had been bathed, but not covered. There were two wounds on the left shoulder, as if a ] bullet had pureed through the flesh, and i another wound on tho neck, on the left side, opposite the angle of the jaw. Three ecalp wounds on the left side of the head. A comb she had been wearing had been broken by the bullet. She also had a bullet wound on the fleshy part of the thumb. Witness dressed the wounds and had Mrs Green removed to the hospital. He did not think the wounds would be permanent. Herbert Perry, of Sawyers Bay, said that Mrs Green was housekeeping for him on March 22. Ho was in the kitchen, and was having a cup of tea, when someone knocked at the door. The boy Sydney, who was standing at the door, said ' his father was there. Mrs Green went to the door, and asked her husband what he was doirii? there, and he replied he had some business. She asked him if she. would isk her husband to come in, and he told her to ask him in, which she did. Later witness went outeide. and had been', outside two minutes when ho heard "Minder' - ' from Mrs Green, and aome shots. He turned bark to th" house, and found Mrs Green outside. She got over the fence info Main's. Witness met the accused coming out of the kitchen, arid was asked if his name was Perry. Witnets replied in the affirmative, and accused said : " A fine crisis things have come to now, Are there any Johns about?" Witness asked him what he meant by Johns. "Policemen," the accused explained, and then said: "Where ir eke now? I've still got one charge left, and if I pet her that will do her." Witness then went into the house. Later aeensed came into the kitchen and asked witness to accompany him to Port Chalmers, saying that he wanted to give the police as" little (rouble as possible. Witness, cross-examined by the accused, said he thought that the accused, when hj« came out of the house, was very cool and collected. Mrs Green had told him, when seeking a position as housekeeper, that she was a married wr.man, living apart from her husband. She had been an excellent housekeeper, and very pood to his children. He had had eix hou«ekepjiers since Mrs Peaiv went away some five and a-half years ago. He paid Mrs Green lCs a week, and sometimes gave her 2s on pay day for having made tea for him when he was working overtime. i He had no pictures of women in his horse. 1 He did not go in for that sort of thing. Mts Green had not asked to bo taken back ae h ; s housekeeper. He would have nothiri" more to do with housekeepers in *nluxt.° He very seldom took liquor into the house, and at no time had Mrs Green touched liquor. He. had few visitors to the house. . William Middleditch, of Sawyers Bay, baker, said he was on a byroad at the back of Perrv'e house on the Sunday afternoon in question- He heard three or four shots fired in quick succession in the vicinity of Perrv's house. He took little notice "of the shots, as shootdnsc wae heard occasionally in the district. Presently he heard a woman's scream, arid as he was going over to investigate another shot was fired.- He did not see the person who fired it. He saw Mrs Green goin« from i Perrv's house to Main's house. He went to Main's house by invitation, and eaw ; Mrs Green lytns; on. a couch in the back I bedroom. He made a hasty examination of her woundts, and found seven—two in i the rhumb, two in the shoulder, ono in the throat, and two ;n the head. He took | Stppss to stop the bleeding. ■ James Main, of Sawyers Bay, laborer, said He lived next door to P«rry. Between ' 3 and 4 o'clock on the afternoon of Sunday, March 22, he heard a. noise as though someone was rapping quickly with a stick on a tin. There was same commotion among the members of hi® i&wiSGhold, and he went to see what was wrong,, HJa jhaaxdg

someone call ont that Mrs Green was shot. On going out from.the back door he met Mrs Green, who told him that her husband had shot her. She was greatly agitated, and was bleeding from a wound in the neck. Green came over to the house and insisted on being allowed in to see Mrs Green. Witness refused to give him permission. Witness's father was lying dead in the room at, the time. ween remarked to him before going away : " It is not finished yet. I have another left.' Green was very excited, but quiet. Dr Baigcnt, senior house surgeon at the Dunedin Hospital, described the nature and extent of Mrs Green's wounds. One bullet had fractured the jaw. She was discharged from the Hospital yesterday. Ho did not think she was injured permanently. To the accused : There were seven wounds, but that did not mean there had been seven bullets. There were entrance and exit wounds.

Constable O'Shea, Port Chalmers, gave evidence.

(See Stop Press.)