INFANTICIDE CHARGE
MOTHER ACQUITTED (P.AJ GREYMOUTH, March 4. After a retirement of over three and a-half hours the jury returned a verdict of not guilty when Margaret Campbell Doel, married, aged 21, was charged with murdering her infant male child at Greymouth on December 31. The case, whifch was heard before Mr Justice Kennedy, lasted for two days. After her release, Doel was arrested on a charge of concealment of birth, and on the application of the police was remanded till Monday, bail being granted. Allegations that the accused had strangled the child at birth in a lavatory at the laundry where she was employed were made by the Crown, represented by Mr F. A. Kitchingham. The medical evidence stated that it was impossible to ascertain at the time of finding the body 12 to 14 days later whether the child had lived. For the defence, Mr W. D. Taylor contended that unless it could be proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the child had lived the jury could not convict. •
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Evening Star, Issue 26042, 5 March 1947, Page 6
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171INFANTICIDE CHARGE Evening Star, Issue 26042, 5 March 1947, Page 6
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