COWBOY ON TRIAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20861, 13 August 1942, Page 2

COWBOY ON TRIAL

ATTEMPTED MURDER WHANGARA SHOOTINGS UNUSUAL FEATURE Two charges of attempted murder and two of discharging a shotgun with intent to do grievous bodily harm to lan and Margaret Frances Fraser were heard by Mr. Justice Johnston and jury in the Supreme Court in Gisborne to-day against Thomas Patrick Bell, aged 16, a cowboy. The charges arose out of an occurrence at Whangara on June 8, when lan and' Margaret Frances Fraser, brother and sister, were injured. Mr. L. T. Bernard appeared for the accused. The following jury heard the case:— John O. Musgrave, foreman, Reginald E. Weston, James W. McCullough. John Mahoney, Arthur Young, Leslie C. D. Dewar, William Hodgson, Frederick C. Chitty, Morris J. Robertson, Alexander W. Mclntosh. John Crosby, and Clement F. Scholium. The Crown prosecutor, Mr. F. W. Nolan, in his opening address, said that the one extraordinary feature of the case was that there was no apparent motive for the shooting. In most such cases the man concerned with the shooting had a grievance of some kind, but there was nothing of that in this case, the accused being on the best of terms with the injured people. Evidence for the Crown showed that Thomas Fraser, the father of the injured people, had a gun which had not been used for a long time and which was kept in his bedroom. The accused had been asked by lan Fraser to replant loganberry bushes,-and they argued as to whether they were loganberries or blackberries. lan Fraser was shot at when returning to the homestead, on his horse, al'tar visiting a neighbour and his sister was injured when she ran to see what had happened and also When she went to use the telephone. The accused’s attitude just before the shooting occurred appeared to be perfectly friendly. After the shootings, the: accused assisted in making lan Fraser comfortable until the arrival of assistance. Bell also rang the police to “send a patrol wagon” and was waiting for them reading a book when the police party arrived. (Proceeding)