BOY SHOOTS GIRL

Evening Star, Issue 18030, 26 July 1922, Page 7

BOY SHOOTS GIRL

A PATHETIC TRAGEDY. Albert, Thomas Otto Miller, seventeen,! of Queenstown, was on trial at tho General; Sessions yesterday (says the Melbourne ■ Ago ’ of Jvrty 7) ou a manslaughter charge in connection with the shooting of ; the four-year-old little girl, Rose Lilian Newiug, of Queenstown, on Juno 8. The accused lad, who was reported to have wept copiously after tho accidental shooting, sat silent and depressed-looking j In tho dock throughout the proceedings, which were brief. The Crown’s evidence , showed that the single-barrelled, breech- ■ loading shotgun was kept hanging on the j kitchen wall above the sofa in accused’s home. Into the homo a little earlier camo the deceased child, left there by her grand, mother, a neighbor, for safe keeping while tho grandmother went to look after some cattle, The child was a frequent visitor to the Anderson household. Accused Miller is a son of Mrs Anderson, who married again.- Tho accused, desiring, he said, to frighten some chickens away from tho back door, too]; down the shot-gun from the wall and went to the back doo v , remarking that he “ would have to shoot sonic of those chickens.”- The little visitor, Rose Kewing, ran to the door with him, saying -“ Don’t shoot the chickens. Albio; shoot me.” Then, it was deposed, t-ho accused swung the gun round on his hip towards tho child. It went off, and the- child was killed instantaneously. _ The lad, broken-heated, it was .-bated, picked tlio child up and placed her on the sofa. Ho wept 'unreitrainedly,' and was unable to answer questions put to him. He said Hater that ho did not know tho gun v.as loaded. It must, he thought, have Lectr left loaded when he put it away after his last shooting expedition tho previous week, and when slowing the gun round he must have put pressure on tho trigger, which had a light touch. The police found the gun under the house. The scene in court had the aspect of family mourning, Mrs Caroline Wood, the grandmother of tho deceased child, said that the accused was a good lad. Constable Dunk also said that the lad boro an excellent reputation. His half-sisters, Florence and Ruby Anderson, cleuosed_ to hearing the gun “go off,” and <o_ running out of tlio -adjoining bedroom into the kitchen and seeing the accused sobbmgly pick up the little girl’s body an-cl place it on the sofa. Ruby, the younger half-sister, wept throughout her evidence, bring reassured by judge, counsel, and prosecutor alike that she had nothing to- try for and was ‘‘doing excellently.” The sad Htle country family party thereafter sat at the back of the court, the neighborly grandmother patting and l otherwise soothing the crying children. Mr Maxwell, "who appeared for the accused, took the line of defence that the accused’s negligence could rot l-e termed gross negligence |f a criminal cliaract-r, such as to sustain a manslaughter clourge. After tho Crown had presented its case ho asked Judge Bethridgo to withdraw the case from the jury or to take the feeling of the jury without proceeding further.

His Honor, after some deliberation, remarked that the matter was fairly one that the jury might decide. Mr Maxwell thereupon, without calling evidence for The defence, addressed the ury, suggesting that it must be repulsive to be asked to place a badge of criminality on this mere fad, who was on the threshold of life, arid who would cany to his grave the painful memory of this very sad accident, whereby he had been tho instrument of the taking of tho life of this little girl neighbor. He had always been the best of friends with her, and had often played with her. Though his action might have been careless, it was not grossly careless in the sense that it constituted criminality. The day might como when some ill-disposed ■person would point tho finger of scorn at tho lad and remind him that he had once been tried on a manslaughter charge, and he asked the jury to give the fad the comfort of being able to say that when a jury of his fellow countrymen heard the facts they acquitted him without leaving tile jury box. Judge Dethridge gave the jury the benefit of tho law on the subject of manslaughter. The jurymen tried to determine the issue, ‘as asked by counsel, without leaving tho box, but one or two desiring time for reflection, they all retired, and returned a few minutes later with a verdict of not guilty.- The acciised was discharged. Outside the court the little country family chela gathered round the discharged accused and showered their quiet congratulations upon him, his little halfsisters patting his hands and coat sieevea and otherwise manifesting their sympathetic affection. The lad, however, did not trust himself to speak, and burned to the fresh air outside, with tho little family party behind him.