MURDER ALLEGED

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 February 1947, Page 9

MURDER ALLEGED

ACCUSED COMMITTED FOR TRIAL NO PLEAENTERED (P.A.) NAPIER, Feb. 12. Making no reply 'when asked to plead to a charge of murder, Wilfred Lawrence Ward Markham, aged 69, of Hastings, was committed for trial by the Magistrate (Mr, J. Miller) this afternoon. The accused is a patient at the Napier Hospital, and the hearing took place-in the nurses’ lecture room. The charge related to the death of the accused’s Wife, Elsie Lillian Markham, at their home in Hastings on January 5. . Evidence that..he attended Mrs. Markham on January 3, when he considered that she was on. the verge of a nervous breakdown, was given by Dr. A. D. White. . The witness said he had no occasion to examine the accused about his mental condition, but at the end of July, 1946, Mrs. Markham told the witness that the accused had adopted a threatening attitude towards her, although he had later returned to normal. A pathologist, Dr. D. J. Doyle, gave evidence that the death of Mrs. Markham was caused by strangulation.

Markham had walked into the police station at 4.30 on the afternoon of January 5 and said he had killed his wife in cold blood, said Detective A.. Reid. The accused had said: “I blasphemed against the Holy Ghost. I had to do it.” The accused later added: “God 'commanded that I should do it,” said the witness.

- Evidence of the dissension which he said had taken place about religious matters between the Markhams was given by Keith Elliott, a theological student, of Christchurch, a son-in-law of the accused, who was staying with the Markhams at the time of the tragedy. He said the dissension had led to scenes between them, including one on the day in which Mrs. Markham was killed.

The witness said, the accused was undergoing an extremely tense religious strain at the time, but that he and his wife were very devoted. A medical report by Dr. Hart, of the Porirua Mental Hospital, was handed to the Magistrate by the prosecutor. For the accused, Mr. W. E. Bate submitted that from the report it appeared that the accused was unfit to plead. The Magistrate directed that the accused be formally asked to plead, but accused did not reply.