Wife’s Story Of Poison In Milk: Husband Charged

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 October 1948, Page 5

Wife’s Story Of Poison In Milk: Husband Charged

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. On a charge of attempting to make June Annette Nalepa take poison, potassium cyanide, with intent to annoy or injure, on September 14, Joseph Nalepa, a grindei' aged 37, appeared before Mr F. F. Reid S.M. in the Magistrate’s Court this morning. A .charge of attempting to murder June Nalepa on the same date was withdrawn.

June Annette Nalepa, wife of the accused, said she met him in England during the war, when she was a member of the W.A.A.F. He was then attached to the Polish section of the R.A.F. After the war she returned to New Zealand and they exchanged letters. He came to New Zealand in December' last and they married. They agreed to separate in March, but reconciliation was effected until June, when finally they separated. Returning to her flat with her mother after the pictures on September 14, witness said she. saw a scrap of a paper which had been in her husband’s possession when they separated. Milk in a cup was a flat yel-low-brown colour, as was some milk in a bottle. There was thick sediment at the bottom of the cup. Her husband once threatened to cut her throat and take his own life. In reply to counsel, Mrs Nalepa said her husband had attempted to commit suicide when they first decided to separate. The hearing is proceeding.