YOUTH ON CAPITAL CHARGE

Evening Star, Issue 22953, 10 May 1938, Page 14

YOUTH ON CAPITAL CHARGE

MURDER OF FATHER ALLEGED POLICE CLAIM CONFESSION LAD LIVED IN TERROR [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, May 9. A lightly-built youth, aged 19. Francis Borgia Spensley, stood in the dock: of the Supreme Court to-day charged with the murder, at Swanson, on February 7, of his father, Robert Fitzroy Spensley. In a clear, firm voice he pleaded not guilty. The trial was commenced before Mr Justice Fair and a jury. Mr V. R. Meredith, with him Mr N. 1. Smith, is prosecuting, and Mr Allan J. Moody is defending the accused. Mr Meredith outlined the case. He said the murdered man was 64 years of age, and had been three times married, being a widower at the time of his death. The murder was not brought to light until March 13, when the body was found in a heap of hay alongside the house where he and the accused had been living together. The accused was a child of the second marriage. Spensley was last seen alive on February 6 or 7, and an unopened newspaper of February 8 found in the house suggested February 7 as the date of death. A married daughter would say it was her father’s habit, on account of asthma, to sleep propped up by pillows. He usually slept in a shirt and undergarments, and when the body was found it was clad in a shirt, underpants, and socks.

Mr Meredith added that evidence would be led to chow that the accused went to stay at a neighbour’s place for a day or two after February 7, taking with him clothing, blankets, a gun, a pea rifle, and rifle cartridges. He said his father had gone away prospecting for gold at Waihi, and would be absent about 14 days. Some days later the accused stopped milking the cows on his father’s farm, stating that they had gone dry. The evidence would also show that he had sold the cows and had received money for them. When the body was found by a neighbour’s sons it was sewn up in a blanket and a sheet and tied round with sacks. Mrs Pender, the deceased’s daughter, called at the house dn March 12, and found an upper set of false teeth under the pillow of her father’s bed, but the blankets and the sheet were missing. She took the accused home to her place in Auckland. When the body was found the upper set of teeth was missing. While Constable Norton .was awaiting the arrival of the detectives, evidence would show that Mrs Pender, with her husband, her brother-in-law, and the accused, drove up. Constable? Norton would give evidence that he then took the accused aside and asked, “ Where is your father? ” The accused was silent for a short time, then said, “I will tell you the truth. We had a row, and I shot him with the rifle.” On the advice of a relative, he said no more. The evidence would show that there were two holes in the skull directly between the eyes about threequarters of an inch apart.

UNHAPPY LAD. Mrs Selina Winslow, widow, of Swanson, said the accused was a friend of her sons, and came to sleep in a tent with some of them about the first week in February. Later he brought guns with him, and brought a motor car. She saw him signing a cheque, and he said his father had told him to do so. She insisted on the accused taking away the guns he had brought, and she afterwards found some .22 calibre cartridges in the washhouse;— In answer to Mr Moody, for the accused, witness said the accused had two fingers bruised when he came to her. He was quite a good worker on the farm. He was very nervous, and seemed to be afraid of things. He used to sit and mope a lot, and did not have too happy a time on the farm. Mr Moody: Would you say he appeared to be a neglected boy? Witness: I should think so. A schoolboy, Sidney Keith Winslow, aged 13, a son of the previous witness, said that when the accused came to them in February he said his father was at Waihi prospecting, and would be away for a few weeks.—To Mr Moody, witness said the accused had two finger nails off when he came to them in February. He always appeared frightened and nervous. Answering his Honor, witness said the accused told him he got the injury when his father was giving him a hiding, and he put up his hand to ward off a blow. STATEMENT BY CONSTABLE. Constable John Norton, of Henderson, said the accused had told him he had shot his father with a pea rifle. A neighbour of the deceased, Lewis Charles Shaw, said he last saw the deceased alive on February 6or 7. In cross-examination, witness said the accused was a well-mannered boy, but he appeared to be nervous and highly strung. He did practically all the work on the farm. “I reckon he was over-worked,” said witness. Mr Moody: I am instructed that the boy was frightened of his father? Witness: Yes, he was. He almost lived in terror of his father on occasions? That is the way it appeared. Witness said he had seen the father chasing the boy about the farm, and had seen him throw a lump of wood at him. Mr Moody: It is suggested that the boy was worked like a slave?—Yes, he was. A daughter of the deceased and a half-sister of the accused, Mrs Sarah Agnes Hma Pender, said she lived ht her father’s house for some months in 1936, and her father and the accused were getting on very well then. Witness had not completed her evidence when the court adjourned.