MARRIED FIVE WEEKS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20137, 5 January 1940, Page 12

MARRIED FIVE WEEKS

WAR BRIDE BEREAVED RIFLE FIRED AT TENT OFFICER BEFORE COURT CARDIFF, Dec. 1. A blue-eyed girl widowed after five weeks of marriage sat with bowed head in Cardiff Police Court, and heard a young artillery captain plead not guilty to a charge of shooting her husband, a gunner in his regiment. She told the magistrates that she met her husband, who was 25, only a month before their marriage. In the dock, wearing uniform, was Captain Terence Michael Dooley, aged 27. He was accused of the manslaughter of Gunner Alfred Giles HallAfter Rabbits Mr. Leslie Owen, prosecuting, said: “Captain Dooley and Lieutenant Donald Calder returned to camp with two Service rifles after shooting rabbits. "Approaching camp, they decided to shoot at a tent occupied by Lieutenant Elliot. It was partly hidden by another tent, occupied by Gunner Hall and Gunner Leonard Jones. “Both shots entered the gunners’ tent. “Gunner Hall was lying on a mattress reading a book, and Captain Dooley’s shot pierced the wall of the tent close to his head. “Gunner Jones saw Hall collapse, groaning, on the floor.” Lieutenant Calder told the court he fired at the top of Lieutenant Elliot's tent. No Camouflage Superintendent Ivor Evans said that Captain Dooley made this statement: — “I very foolhardily decided to put a round into the wall of Mr. Elliot's lent. Unfortunately I put the round into the tent occupied by the batmen. “I thought it was Mr. Elliot’s tent because his is new and had not been treated with camouflage dressing. The tent at which I fired was in a similar state. “I directed the shot so it would penetrate wall of the tent and strike the ground just inside. I knew the lay-out of Mr. Elliot’s tent, and fired so that the shot would do no damage apart from making a hole in the wall. “My batman. Jones, came towards me and said, ‘Alfred is bleeding terribly, sir.’ “My first thought was to get Hall to the infirmary.” Captain Dooley, who reserved his defence, was committed for trial at the next. Assizes. He was given bail. \ _______________