MURDER CHARGE FAILS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 March 1928, Page 9

MURDER CHARGE FAILS.

CASE OF JOHN DUNCAN

CHILD’S DEATH DUE TO' ASPHYXIA. tiIVT TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.J OHRIhTCtH U R.DH, March 6. A charge ql; murdering hit two-year-old son was ineferred against John Duncan, aged 49, who was a fanner oi Courtenay, in th© Magistrate's -Court here to-day, before Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M. The information was dismissed and Duncan was discharged from custody. The evidence of the doctor_ by whom the post mortem examination was made dispelled any possible theory that the child met his death through violence. On February 6 Duncan’s wife secured an order for separation against Duncan, who was ordered to pay maintenance at the rate of £3 weekly. Evidence was given at the hearing to-day that Duncan, on the way home from the city on the afternoon of February G, was much perturbed and excited at the result of the case.

That evening he dismissed his housekeeper, telling her she would have to leave that night as he could not afford to keep her, and he also put off several men engaged in stacking his crops, saying that he was going to do nothing further with harvesting. About five o’clock Duncan was seen with his little boy and an hour later the house was sebn to burning. ** Teresa Sword, sister of Mrs. Duncan, gave an account of a visit to Duncan’s farm in company with Mrs. Duncan to take away the child, of whom the court had awarded Mrs. Duncan custody. Witness saw Duncan standing at the door of the washhouse with the baby in one arm and holding an axe in the other hand. When they asked Duncan for the child he threatened them with the axe. They did not,say any more but went to Kir wee to the police station. When they arrived back the house, sheds and stacks were burning, and nothing could be seen ef Duncan or the child. William Steel Patterson, labourer, said the witness, Teresa Sword, kept house for him in Christchurch. He accompanied her to.' Duncan’s farm. Witness said to Duncan : I have come for the child. Duncan said to his wife : You were responsible for your first husband’s death, and wilL be responsible for mine and the baby’s in the morning. Accused then used bad language and witness told him that if he were anj sort of a man he would come out without thechopper. Later witness went away with the others. James Riley, farm labourer, said that when he' was working on a, stack on an adjoining farm he saw Duncan set fire to the stacks. The house and sheds were already burning. 4 hen Duncan tried to set fire to tlie stooks. Duncan then drove in a gig noth the little boy to the back road. Witness and some companions went after them in a car and met the horse galloping back with the gig empty. They did not see Duncan or the child. Robert Henderson, farmer, told of the finding of the child’s dead body at 9' p.m. in the water-race at the bottom of Duncan’s farm. The water was about a foot deep in the race. Dr. A. B. Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Hospital, said he made a post mortem examination of the body,nt the child. It appeared to be well nourished, but actually showed an internal trouble which made it most susceptible to shock and peculiarly liable to sudden death under anaesthetics or severe strain, or even such a_ fright as a child might get at seeing his home burning. There was no sign of water m the child’s lungs, he said, and no signs whatever of death by drowning. The child had vomited and the food had lodged in the bronchial tubes, causing asphyxiation, from which the child had died. There was no sign of violence on the body. Constable Johns, of Darfield, said he interviewed Duncan at 8.30 o.n the nioht of February 6. Witness asked him where the child was. Duncan replied : “I don’t know; they took him away this afternoon.” Duncan was. wet all over and there was a severe gash on his left arm. Constable Gibson said that- When DUncan was being brought to the. city witness aslted him what had happened to the boy, and Duncan had answered: “He is better dead than with a woman like his mother.” , , . Detective Thomas said lie took from accused a statement, in which Duncan said: “I did, not murder him, but 1 suppose I shall hang for it, There is nothing to live for now. A man has worked hard all his life and tried to make a home and this is what happens.” _ . Detective-Sergeant Y oung_ said that, on arrival at the police station he told Duncan that the'boy had been found drowned. Duncan said: “Better that than she should have it.” The next day Duncan appeared normal, and when witness interviewed him Duncan said he could remember nothing from the time his wife came for the child until he awoke in the hospital strapped down. “I did not know,” Duncan said, “that the house and stacks on my farm had been burned down. I do not remember setting fire to them myself, nor do I .remember how I was cut on the left arm, nor do I remember how I became all wet.’’ The Magistrate found that the child died from asphyxia following inhalation of food into the bronchial tubes. He also found that there was no evidence on which to commit Duncan fox trial.