MAREO APPEAL CASE

Evening Star, Issue 25768, 15 April 1946, Page 8

MAREO APPEAL CASE

SHOULD CONVICTION BE QUASHED? THE CASE FOR APPELLANT (V.A.) WELLINGTON, April 14. Continuing his submissions ou behalf of Eric Mareo before the Court of Appeal on Saturday, Mr A. C. Sexton, wunsel for Mareo, stated that the evidence showed that Mrs Mareo and Freda Starke were sex pervets, that Mrs Mareo's neurotic tendencies were indicated by evidence as to her moodiness, her suicidal tendencies, and her fear of pregnancy. Her habits of taking narcotic drugs, said Mr Sexton, were proved by Mareo's own statements, by her symptoms over months or years, and her pretended illness, as well as by the further fact that she was of the type from which addicts came, according to Dr Giesen's evidence. It was also shown by the direct testimony of two witnesses from Australia who spoke of her taking drugs there. Relations between Mareo and his wife were generally good, said Mr Sexton, and, except for three occasions when they fell out, relations between them had improved, shortly before her death, according to Freda Starke. As for Mareo's actions, these were not the actions of a guilty man. He brought veronal openly from chemists who knew him, and was always open and frank about the -use of veronal, and actually when questioned over-stated the amount of veronal purchased by him.

Further, continued Mr Sexton, it was clear from the evidence at the second trial that Mareo actually invited Freda Starke, his wife's best woman friend, to stay at their home over the very week-end when the Crown alleged he was murdering his wife. Mr Sexton submitted strongly that this was not the action of a man about to murder his wife. " On the morning of the Saturday,' continued Mr Sexton, " there was evidence from which the court may assume that Thelma Mareo took a lethal dose of veronal. There is the evidence of Graham Mareo that in the morning she was at the dressing table apparently looking for something and not in possession of her senses, and there was also the fact that she was alone in the house for at least an hour and a-half during the morning." In view of this evidence, Mr Sexton submitted that she took the veronal at some stage of the morning either with intent to commit suicide or owing to forces of automatism. He pointed out that these theories were supported by the evidence of Dr Giesen and not discounted by the evidence of doctors who gave evidence in support of the Crown case.

The Crown case that Mareo gave a lethal dose of veronal to his wife on Saturday night broke down, said Mr Sexton, for three reasons. The first reason was that Freda Starke's evidence, upon which the medical witnesses based the whole of their conclusions, was too unreliable. The second reason was that the evidence of the medical witnesses for the Crown was not supported by standard medical authorities or any other .satisfactory proof. The third reason was that evidence contradicting that of the Crown's medical, witnesses was given by Drs Paget, Beattie, and Meissner. The case against the appellant was not proved with that degree of certainty that was necessary in order to justify a verdict of guilty. At the worst for the appellant, the evidence could be said to be equally consistent with either guilt or innocence and this was not sufficiently strong for a verdict of guilty. " There has been a miscarriage of justice,]' said Mr Sexton, " and the conviction should be quashed." CROWN'S CASE. Opening the case for the Crown, Mr V. 11. S. Meredith adopted the reasons and findings of the Court of Appeal when it considered Mareo's application for a new trial in 1936, and submitted that if the evidence were the same, the court would again adopt the same findings and reasoning. The Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers): The present case is quite different, and is placed on a different basis. In the second trial, from which the prisoner is now appealing, evidence was called for the prisoner, whereas in the first trial, which was considered by this court in 1936, no evidence at all was called for him. This is not, as_ that was, an application for a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of evidence. Mr Justice Kennedy: The totality of evidence here is different.

Mr Meredith stated that the police files setting out the investigations and inquiries made by the police had been handed to defence counsel, and the Crown had waived its -privilege in respect of these documents. In the course of the investigation, he explained, preliminary investigations and further inquiries had to be "made by the police, and in poisoning cases there might have to he references time and time again. Miss Starke was interrogated seven times, and that was the normal procedure in such cases. " Out of these various statements," said Mr Meredith, " odd words have been extracted from their context by for the appellant and used for comparison, but Miss Starke never deviated from the general picture she gave of events in the Mareo household." The Chief Justice: That may be true, hut the details may be much more important here than in the usual criminal trial. The court was adjourned till Monday morning