MURDER CHARGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21853, 25 October 1945, Page 6

MURDER CHARGE

TE KUITI CASE DEATH OF WOMAN TRIAL OF DRIVER (P.A.) HAMILTON, Oct. 24. The trial of Keith Bennett, aged 26, driver (Mr. VV. W King, Auckland) on a charge of the murder of Lois Ypres Fitzgerald at Te Kuiti on July 22 commenced in the Supreme Court in Hamilton before Mr. Justice Fair.

For the Crown, Mr. Gillies said that the accused served for four years in the Middle East and returned early .this year. He settled in Te Kuiti, where he me.t the deceased, whose relationship with her husband, a prisoner of war, had virtuaiiy ceased. The accused, he said, had planned to marry her when she received her divorce. However, another soldier, Darcy Tangihaere, became friendly with her and she went out with him in preference to the accused.

The accused showed distress for some time, Mr. Gillies continued, but eventually said he was reconciled to his loss. He played football on July 21 and in the evening went to a party. Tangihaere and the deceased went to the pictures that evening and later attended a dance. Before returning to the deceased's home, the couple were standing near a hedge when .the accused approached them. He had a gun in his hand and started to talk to the couple. Tangihaere endeavoured to get into a position to grapple with the accused when a shot was fired and Mrs. Fitzgerald fell to the ground. She was wounded in the chest. The accused then gave himself up to the police. Mrs. Fitzgerald was taken to hospital, but died soon afterwards. Father’s Evidence Charles William Hetet, father of the deceased, said that his daughter was 25 years of age. She was an eighthcaste Maori. She was married in 1938 and had two children. Her husband was taken prisoner in Crete and letters between them had ceased. Dr. L. it. DeCastro, Te Kuiti, said he estimated that the shot was fired at from three to live feet from the deceased. Death was caused by severe wounds in the chestThe witness said that at the time the accused was suffering from jaundice, which was a depressing disease. A Maori, Darcy Tangihaere, aged 27, gave evidence that he was a married man living apart from his wife. He formed an association with the deceased, and on the night of July 21 took her to the pictures and later to supper. They then went to her home and were sitting behind a hedge when they heard the accused call to them. As "they approached him he told them that he had come “to do them both in” and himself as well. The witness said he took his coat off and called on the accused to be a man and have it out. The accused later repeated that he was determined to do what he had come to do. A shot was then fired. ' . , , , The witness said he tried to catch the accused, but failed. Cross-examined, the witness said he saw home service only. He denied that the deceased called the accused a coward and that she said he was too frightened to shoot them. The witness denied that he kept Mrs. Fitzgerald between himself and the accused. He had no knowledge that anyone else was behind the hedge that night. (Proceedings