HAWORTH ACQUITTED

Grey River Argus, 18 May 1944, Page 4

HAWORTH ACQUITTED

WIFE MURDER CHARGE Judge’s Summing Up AUCKLAND, May 17. Mr. Terry addressing the jury, today, said that the accused had taken the.hammer not with the intention or killing his wife but of driving the American away. He emphasised the strangeness o_L the love declaration between the American and Mrs. Haworth, after Osgood entered into ■clandestine arrangements to deceive j the husband. This declaration staggered and shocked Haworth. Baulked of his purpose by Osgood’s absence on the day of the tragedy, and met by his wife’s cold rejection of his overtures, Haworth went mad and was not responsible for his action, therefore he was not guilty of murder. I Mr. Meredith, addressing the jury, i said the jury must say there had been I a crime of some sort, either murder 'or manslaughter. The Judge, summing up, said that bursts of rage were not things by which people escaped total legal liability fox- criminal acts. It an attack on his wife was in Haworth’s mind when he took the hammer and went home, it could not be said that he acted suddenly before his passion could cool. It might have been that he hoped to find the American at his home and to make him go away by the use of the hammer or otherwise. Accused’s evidence breathed sincerity when he said that he expected to get his wife to change her mind. His Honour’s direction to the jury was that if, remembering Haworth’s experiences in the proceeding days, the v felt that the provocation of the wife’s attitude to him when he returned home and pleaded with her to return to him, was such as would cause an ordinary man, in such circumstances, to lose self control their proper verdict was one of manslaughter. The jury retired before the luncheon adjournment. THE ,VERDICT. P.A. AUCKLAND, May 17. A verdict of not guilty was returned by the jury in the trial of Thomas Phillip Haworth, aged - 32, foreman chrome tanner, on the charge of having murdered his wife, Patricia Florence Haworth, at Otahuhu on March 16.