ATTEMPT TO MURDER CHARGED

Evening Star, Issue 19763, 13 January 1928, Page 8

ATTEMPT TO MURDER CHARGED

A WIFE'S ORDEAL [Pee United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, January 12. A charge of attempting to murder his wife and of having caused her actual bodily harm was preferred against Lowrence Mackenzie, aged forty-one, of Parnell, in the Police Court to-day. The police evidence alleged that accused had attempted to kill his wife early on the morning of December 30 when she slept in bed. A hammer produced in court was alleged to have been the weapon with which the woman had been hit. Accused wife, Honor C. Mackenzie, said that on the night in question she went to bed about 8.45. Late in the night jdie remembered waking and trying to .find her way out of the room. She felt sick, and her face was wet with blood. Her husband was awake, and she told him she wanted to get a drink of water. Accused thereupon caught witness by the throat and said; “No, you won’t get a drink of water. We are in here to die together.” “Then,” she said, “1 struggled toward the window and pushed it up at the bottom. .1 tried to get out on to the street, because I could not get the door open, f could not get out, but I put my head through the window to get some fresh air. I could smell gas very strongly.” When witness went hack to the bedroom she saw the gas tube hanging from the jet over her bed, and one end of the tube was under the clothes, which were blood-stained. A constable stated that he was accosted by accused in the street early in the morning. Accused said he wanted to give himself up for something he had done to his wife, but he would not say what lie had done. Later accused said he could not remember what had happened. A doctor said it was probable that the cut on the woman had been inflicted by a hammer. Accused pleaded not guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.