MOUAT CASE

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 May 1925, Page 5

MOUAT CASE

JURY DISAGREES,

NEW TRIAL ORDERED

FOR NEXT SESSION

(by TELEGRAPH. PRESS ASSOCIATION.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 15. The Mouat case was concluded at the Supreme Court yesterday. Addressing the Court on behalf of the accused, Mr C. S. Thomas, after pointing out that there was no evidence that Mrs Mouat was dead and no direct evidence that she was murdered, went on to say that the Crown Prosecutor had suggested that if Mrs Mouat was. alive she would have come back to protect Mouat in his terrible position, but if she had gone away with -another man -every statement by Mouat tallied. The hue and cry was not raised until fourteen days after her disappearance, and if she went off in that way she probably was not in this country and was not in touch with what was happening here. On© witness said that Mrs Mouat had suffered from a recurrence of fever in South Africa, and was depressed and melancholy. How could it- be said that she did not commit suicide ? The Crown had failed to prove any motive whatever, and it must not be forgotten that the Crown had found it impossible to reconstruct the crime.

“If this man is hanged,' - ’ Mr Thomas concluded, “and >six months later on Mrs Mouat returns from South Africa, what will your feelings be? Sir John Denniston in this court often said that it was much better for 100 guilty men to escape than for one innocent person to be declared guilty. That surely is common justice. Remember that if you find Mouat guilty you find him possessed of anatomical skill and detxerity of which • there is no evidence whatever. 1 nut it to you that his guilt i.s impossible and you know it is.” Summing up, Mr Justice Adams said the first question to be decided was: Was Mrs "Mount, dead? The second one was: Had -she met her death at the hands of her husband ? A good deal had been heard during the hearing of the case on the question of circumstantial evidence, and in this connection his Honor read the opinion of an eminent English jurist, showing that such evidence had an important bearing when direct evidence was not forthcoming. It was the rule that: a man was innocent until proved guilty, and the jury had to be satisfied that such was the case before they found accused guilty. A statement had been made by Mouat that his wife had on one occasion left him for another man, but- it was the duty of his Honor to point out that there was no evidence that such was the case. It had been suggested that Mrs Mount had suffered from low spirits, and had threatened to commit suicide, hut it had to be remembered that the evening before her disappearance she was in her usual spirits. Respecting the discovery of the hones, his Honor said the Crown claimed that the discovery of the bones in the circumstances in which they had been found amounted to a demonstration of conclusive ouilt. The question of the disposal of the body was not solved, nor was that of whether or not a lethal weapon was used. The Crown did not claim that the whole of the body had been destroyed by fire, but that a portion of it had been burnt. The inrv retired at 5.20 p.m., hut had tea and commenced the consideration of their verdict about 8 p.m. They returned just before midnight and announced that' they were unable to agree on a verdict. A new trial was ordered, to take pTnee in August.