PENSIONER’S DEATH

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1944, Page 2

PENSIONER’S DEATH

WOMAN COMMITTED. CHRISTCHURCH, July 20 Helen Lewis, aged 34, of 115 Aidwin’s Road, Linwood, was charged before Mr. G. G. Chisholm, S.M., . in the Magistrate’s Court in Christchurch, to-day, with the murder of Frederick Albert Brazier, aged 60, a pensioner, on June 24. The accused, who was represented by Mr. Roy Twyneham, did not plead. She was committed to stand her trial at the next sessions of the Supreme Court in Christchurch, which will ooen on August 1. Mr. A. W. Brown conducted the prosecution' on behalf of the Crown.

Donald Wilson Dalton, a soldier, residing at 76 Aidwin’s Road, said that on the night before Brazier’s death the accused hvJ called at his home with her chib/; The child, she said, was ill and she wanted to use the telephone to communicate with a doctor. Accused mentioned that she could not open the windows in her house, as the doctor had advised, as they had been nailed up. The explanation she gave was that she was nervous. Mrs. Lewis was anxious to return after supper, witness added, because she thought “the old man” would be anxious about her. As she left his premises, said Dalton, he handed her her axe. She had left it near the porch of his front door. An axe produced by counsel was not identified by witness as the one then’ carried by Mrs. Lewis. Mrs. Lewis said she carried it as she thought someone might attack her. She left, carrying both child and axe. Another neighbour, William. Alexander Harris, an engineer, said that the husband of the accused was a casual acquaintance. After retiring to bed early on the morning of June 24, said Harris, he and his wife heard “a series of heavy thumpings” coming from the home of the accused. The noises continued for about an hour. Witness was awakened later by similar thumpings, and he got out of bed at 4 a.m. From his back verandah he observed a glow of light coming from the Lewis home, but there were no more noise that night. A sister of the accused, Mrs. . Mary Kerridge, said Mrs. Lewis had been married for four years and had one child aged 24- years. Jack Lewis, her husband, she said, was a painter and was frequently away from home. There had been an elderly man residing as a boarder in her sister s home for about a month prior to June 24 and he had occupied a back bedroom. Witness described certain eccentric actions, and utterances by the accused. She produced three tie pins which Mrs. Lewis said had been given bv a woman to “the old man” (Brazier) as a bribe, so that the latter would murder her (the accused). “But,” accused said, “I murdered him.” Counsel: Did she say how sne did it.-’ —I think she said with an axe. She said that the axe was hidden under her house. The accused then grabbed the tie pins from the hand of her sister, and said she would give them to the police. As a result of information that she gave her husband, said witness, the latter immediately communicated with the police. Arthur Albert Kerridge, the .husband of the last witness, who resided at 9 Newcastle Street, said he accompanied the police to the home of Mrs. Lewis when the body of Brazier was found on a stretcher. The body, he said, was attired in dark trousers md a shirt.

The condition of the room in which the body of Brazier had been Mund was described by Sergeant S. B. Holder (who had accompanied the witness, Kerridge, to the house). Brazier’s bod:?, said Detective E. G. Ward, was cut about on the hands and Let. There was blood about the head, and on the floor nearby. The witness found, a. bookcase broken, also an extensively damaged suitcase.

ACCUSED’S STATEMENT

When informed by the police that the body of a man had been found in the back bedroom of her home, said Detective Ward, the accused replied: “I did it.” Mrs. Lewis said that she had hit Brazier with an axe and that he was awake at the time. The axe, she added, was hidden under the house. The reason that she had hit him, she said, was because he had a box which he had been opening and shutting all night; she believed that he had a baby in the box, and she mought he would do the child some harm. When informed that she would be charged with the murder of Brazier, she replied: ‘‘What does that mean?” Evidence was given by Dr. A. B. Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Public Hospital, as to the injuries received by Brazier. Brazier, he believed, died between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. on June 24. The following day witness made a post-mortem examination. It was found that a pair of scissors was embedded in Brazier’s right leg above the knee-cap. A broken needle was discovered in the left leg. Apart from cuts and bruises, several punctures were found in the skin, which could have been made with a needle. Witness was of opinion that the latter had been inserted after death. The head and face were also bruised and lacerated, and the eyes were blackened. Death was due, he believed to shock, following lacerations to the brain and a fractured skull. The major wounds on the skull, he considered could have been made by the heavy end of an axe. Other injuries could have been produced by a pair of scissors or a knife (both of which were shown as exhibits). There was also a strong probability that Brazier had been gripped at the throat.