KILLED HIS SON.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 February 1925, Page 7

KILLED HIS SON.

MADMAN’S ACT

I>E OMGRE TRAGEDY

(BY TELEGRAPH I'REsa ASSOCIATION.) CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 10.

The trial took place this afternoon before Mr. .Justice- Adams of Robert Tyson Hodgson, who was charged with having murdered his son, Frederick Tyson Hodgson, at Dromore, on the night of January 1. Mr A. T. Donnelly, appeared for the Crown, and the prisoner was represented by Mr W. J. Hunter. The evidence for the Crown was the same as that given in the lower court. Mr. Hunter said the prisoner had an unfortunate family history. His fathei was admitted to Sunnyside in 1985, and died there in 1908. There were other cases of mental disability in the family, but little reference would be made to the mfor the sake of the relatives. Drs. McKillop and Gray, alienists, giving eviednce for the defence, said they had come to the conclusion that at the time of the murder the prisoner .was suffering from an attack of acute excitement, which was practically epileptic in character, and he was incapable of understanding the nature and quaitv of the act of killing his son and knowing that such an act was wrong. His Honour said the Crown Prosecutor frankly admitted that the evidence of the medical experts for the defence would be accepted by -the Crown. He sugested that, provided the jury found the prisoner was insane at the time the crime was committed, their verdict should he couched in -the following terms : “We find the accused not guilty. We further find the accused was insane at the time of the commission of the offence, and declare him acquitted on the grounds of insanity.” The effect of such a verdict, said His Honour, would be that the accused would be detained because of bis insanity, and because be murdered Ids son.

Without leaving the box. the iurv returned a voidict in the terms suggested. His Honour stating that the accused would be ordered to be kept in the Pa-pa run- prison until the pleasure of the Minister for Justice was known.