THE NAPIER TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 23099, 27 October 1938, Page 10

THE NAPIER TRAGEDY

ACCUSED'S STATEMENT Ttt POLICE INTENDED TO FRIGHTEN VICTIM [Per United Press Association,] NAPIER, October 27. The statement allegedly made to the police by Colin Herbert Hercock (21), who was yesterday committed for trial on a charge of murdering Mrs Isobel Annie Aves on October 2, was read by Detective-sergeant Nuttall. The statement was allegedly made to him by accused at the papier Police Station on October 3. In this statement, said Detective Nuttall, accused said he had been keeping company with Dorothy Alice Stafford for about two years. Recently she told him she was in trouble, and she desired an operation. “ I was dead against this,” the statement continued. “ 1 argued with her for the past three months. She was anxious that she should have an operation performed, and I offered to marry her. 1 also told her that if she did not wish to marry me she should go away and have the child and I would see it. was looked after. She would not consent to this.” The statement continues by describing two telephone conversations which the accused said he had with Mrs Aves. Finally she told him to bring the girl to her on Thursday, September 29. Accused took the girl to Mrs Aves’s house at Westshore that night, and he gave Mrs Aves £2O. She did not give him a receipt, and he did not ask for one. On the night of Saturday, October 1, the accused returned, and Mrs Aves said the girl was all right to go home. On the way home, Stafford told him she only had a partial miscarriage. Accused found her ill, and against her will he brought Doctor Allan, of Waipawa, to see her. Dr Allan told her she was very ill, and had her removed to'the hospital. Accused himself went home to Waipawa, got his Browning automatic rifle, and took his mother’s car, driving to Westshore. As he walked past Mrs Aves’s window, she asked who was there. Accused said he wanted to see her, and she said slip would be there in a minute. “I walked to the front door and stood on the path a little to the left of the door. The door was opened by a woman dressed in white. I picked that it was Mrs Aves. As soon as she opened the door she said ‘ What is wrong?’ I then fired the rifle. It jammed, and I heard a man scream. She also screamed. I did not see the man. I then reloaded the rifle by sliding the breech. My rifle is automatic and loads the breech every time you pull the trigger. When I slid the breech at the door, after firing the shot this ejected the live cartridge and at the same time it loaded the breech with another cartridge. When I fired the shot I saw her stagger back into the room. I then ran away to the car. with two dogs chasing me. I got into the car and drove it at a very fast pace.” Accused then described how he threw the rifle into the sea at the Napier waterfront and . how, he went to the Napier Police Station. “ I came from Waipawa with the intention of ‘giving Mrs Aves the fright of her lire. _ I did not have any intention of killing her. I was very worried about Dorothy. I wanted to frighten Mrs Aves to the extent that she would give up this abortion business.. In doing this I thought I was doing society a good turn.’,’ “