MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

Grey River Argus, 24 November 1945, Page 5

MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

AGAINST MAORI GIRL Death of Infant P.A. NEW PLYMOUTH, Nov. 23. A charge of manslaughter of a child, aged five years, at Huirangi, on November 9, against Mary Conroy, a Maori, aged about 15 years, was heard in the New' Plymouth Court to-day before Mr W. H. Woodwrd, S.M. The hearing is to be continued on Monday. The charge was that, by striking Girlie Pue, she caused her death, thereby committing manslaughter. , Seven witnesses, including the mother of the dead child, Ada Waldon Fue and a brother of the child, who found the body, gave evidence. Ada Fue said that Conroy, wno was her niece, had lived with her since she was a baby. She attended school, but had only reached Standard One. A neighbour, named Jimmy Nuku, a farm labourer, who ate his lunch with his employer, Robert James Zimmerman, in a paddock that overlooked Pue’s house, said he saw' Conroy walking with Girlie, and then he saw her thrashing the child. She had the child in front of her, and the child’s arms in between her arms. She was lifting the child up and down, and two or three times dropped her on the ground. She then threw the child’s body from 'side to side. Conroy left the child on the ground, and went into some trees near the house. There were pigs in the paddock. Zimmerman, in evidence, said ne saw what he thought was a woman with a stack. She banged it up and down on the ground three times, and then threw it over her shoulder, and then threw it on the ground three times. After this he saw her kicking it. While watching the incident, he saw two small pigs in the paddock come towards her. Afterwards he saw the person drag the object towards the trees. After a few minutes, he saw someone, whom he presumed was Conroy, running towards the house. , ~ ~ Senior Detective E. C. Jarrold said that, on November 9, an examination of' the area about where it was alleged that the body was found revealed no weapon that might have caused the injuries. When he examined the body in the mortuary, he removed four hairs, which he presumed to be human, from the child’s face, and hair, which he presumed .was a pig’s bristle, from the mouth. When Conroy, was interviewed on November 15, following inquiries, she admitted being in the paddock with Girlie. She said the child took an egg belonging to one of the other children, and refused to give it to her. She ran into the paddock, and Conroy chased, and caught her. She hit her across the' face, and picked her up, and threw her on the ground three or four times. The child was lying on the ground crying, with blood coming from her nose and mouth when she left her. At this time, she said, pigs came down and were near the child.