SHOOTING TRAGEDY

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 July 1936, Page 7

SHOOTING TRAGEDY

ACCUSED GIRL DISCHARGED

MAGISTRATE’S COMMENT [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] ' NELSON, June 30The charge of murder against the fifteen-year-old girl, Agnes E. Caldwell, who shot her father, Joseph Caldwell, dead in the kitchen of their home at Kiwi, on June 16, was dismissed by Magistrate Maunsell, who said that he believed that acquittal by a jury was certain. ‘ Mrs Christina Caldwell, widow of the deceased,; said that her manned life had been very unhappy, because of her husband’s conduct, he having abused her. On the morning of June 16 at 9.30 o’clock, she was having breakfast with her husband and her daughter. Her husband noticed that some sheep had got into some turnips, and he sent Agnes to put them out. She had some difficulty m getting them out, and her husband became angry. . * , ‘ Witness continued that her husband told witness that, if Agnes did not get them out, he would help her with his fists. He called witness and his daughter a “pair of- lazy - and she replied that he should not expect the girl to do the same as he did. Agnes got the sheep through, after a bit of trouble. Her husband next threw a dessert spoon at witness, and she threw it back. He approached witness, and she. tried to get away from him. She left the dining room, and went into the kitchen. He caught hold of her. He tried to hit her head against the chimney bricks, whereupon she screamed to her daughter to come to her help. Witness .said that .Agnes was then in the dining room. Witness tried to scratch her husband’s face, and the next thing that she heard was a shot fired. Her husband was struggling with her at the time, and her head was down. He was facing Her. She looked up after the firing of the shot. She did not then see her • daughter, but she heard her scream. She thought that the shot came from outside at the moment. She remembered seeing ,her husband fall. She asked Agnes whether she had fired the shot,-and she said, “I did.” She said that she had fired it just to frighten her father. Witness said that she was -so terrified * that morning that she thought her husband was going to carry into effect his threat to kill tier. She nearly always bore marks of her husband’s ill-treatment. For a long -period, her husband had a loaded gun by him at night, and a butcher’s knife beneath his pillow. ' Reginald Charles Ricketts, farmer, of Kiwi, a neighbour of Caldwell’s, said that he heard the shot. He went to the- house. Witness knew that Caldwell used to beat his wife, and that he had an insane temper.

Herbert James Duncan, railway em- < ployee, said that he was passing the Caldwell’ house on a jigger when Agnes stopped him, and called “Come and help us! Dad’s thrashing Mum!” As witness approached the girl said: “I’ve shot Dad.”

GIRL’S STATEMENT. Sergeant W. H. Simister produced a statement made bj| the girl. In her statement, the accused detailed the difficulty she had had with the sheep on the morning of June 16, and her father had shouted at her, saying that he would help her with his fists. She succeeded in getting the sheep through the fence, and when she came back, she heard her father “barneying” with her mother and he said that she and witness were “a pair of The statement continued that the girl was having breakfast when she heard a scuffling in the kitchen, and a call for help. She looked towards the spare room, and saw' the rifle standing there, and, hardly knowing what she was doing, she took it to the kitchen, and fired it off to frighten her father. She saw her father slump back. This was the first shot that she had ever fired out of a gun. She did not recollect whether she put a cartridge in the rifle or not. She ran out, and stopped the men, saying that she had shot her father. Last Christmas, the statement continued, her father had threatened to shoot the lot of them, and he was always abusing her mother. In dismissing the information, the Magistrate said: “I realise the heavy responsibility that a Magistrate takes in dismissing a murder charge instead of sending' it to a jury. It is, however, not without precedent. The law is the same in a- charge of murder as in any other indictable case. The hearing before me is not a mere matter of form. I have to consider whether there is a prima facie case made out of wilful murder upon which a jury of reasonably-minded men could convict. Having regard to the fact that wilful intent to murder must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, the accused girl has given what seenis to me to be a reasonable account of what happened. Her deceased father was a sad case of shell shock, occasioned by hvar service, and he suffered from ungovernable impulses to violence. He was in the act of committing a violent, unprovoked assault on his wife. There wa’s a loaded rifle in the room, and the girl’s statement is that, in’ a frenzy of fear that her mother would be murdered, she seized it and fired it, solely with the intention of frightening him, but shot him accidentally. There is no evidence whatsoever that her story is untrue, in any • particular. I believe, therefore, her acquittal by a jury, if not by a Grand Jury, is certain, and to hold the charge over her head would be a refinement of cruelty to her and her mother, who substantiates her statements. The police were in duty bound to bring the charge, and leave the responsibility to me. I have decided to accept the responsibility by dismissing the charge. If it is any consolation to the child, I may say I entirely believe what she so frankly told Sergeant Simister, as the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”