FATAL SCUFFLE

Evening Star, Issue 21931, 18 January 1935, Page 16

FATAL SCUFFLE

CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER / I'Pkk United Pi:i:ss Association, j HASTINGS, January 17. The preliminary hearing of the manslaughter charge against Maurice James Brookcr, aged twenty, who is accused of fatally striking a youth named William George Farquharson while Farquharson was in the company of a girl, Nola Russelt Renin, to whom Brooker had been engaged till a little while previously, was taken at Hastings this morning with Mr J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., on the Bench. The evidence of the girl was that Farquharson had her parcels in his arms, and had no opportunity of defending himself. He fell on the concrete foohyalk, being rendered unconscious. The accused said: “ 1 told you that’s what I’d do with anyone who went with you.”

Further evidence was given to show that the accused had drunk a considerable amount of liquor in company with friends. The deceased’s brother described how be was awakened by the deceased taking ill during the night. The deceased got up, stumbled, and fell on his bed. His parents were then called, and they summoned a doctor. The medical evidence by the two doctors was to the effect that the, actual blow on the chin, did not cause Farquharson’s death.

Constable Dunn stated that the accused told him he did not know whom he had struck till he saw the deceased in Perrin's house.

Constable Craigie said the accused told him he was lying on the grass on the other side of the road from Perrin’s house waiting to see who brought the girl home, as he intended to “ clean him up.” The defence called no evidence, and the accused was committed for trial at the Supreme Court in Napier.