MURDER CHARGE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 September 1924, Page 9

MURDER CHARGE.

4 DEATH OF CHILD. THE AUCKLAND CASE. (BY TELEGRAPH;——X'RESS association.) _ AUCKLAND, Sept. o. Harry Joseph Peters, alias Keogh, aged 43,. was charged at the Police Court with the murder of Desmond Collins Peters, on August 5. Dr. Fullerton, describing the wounds on the dead baby, said that on the right side of the liecK was an irregular jagged wound, about two inches long. He saw the haby in the front room. The body was still warm. He saw a broken dessert knife lying on a soap box in the kitchen, and it was possible for the wounds to be caused by such a knife. "Witness said to the accused: “Have you killed this child ” Accused “Yes.” Witness said: “Did you kill it with this;knife?” Accused again said “Yes.”- Accused added that he did not know why lie did it. He seemed dazed, and his answers to questions were only in monosyllables. In reply to a question if lie had been taking liquor recently Peters said he had not. There were faint scratches of blood under his chin. Cross-examined, witness said the accused told him that he had just fed the baby, and that it had not cried or irritated him.

Dr. Murray, who performed the post mortem, said the baby was well nourished and developed.' He was of opinion that death was due to suffocation, caused by blood entering the lungs from a wound in the windpipe. Constable Allan said he had been watching Peters, who has a prohibition order against him. On August 4 he asked Peters how he was getting on, and Peters replied: “Oh. it’s a worry being out of work. He denied that he had been drinking. He looked a very sick man, but was rational and normal, and there were no signs of drink on him. On £he day of the tragedy witness asked accused what he hifd done, and he replied: “I’ve killed my boy. I got a sudden impulse.”