CONFLICT OF EVIDENCE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 August 1935, Page 6

CONFLICT OF EVIDENCE

Points Raised in Poisoned Chocolates Case LONG CROSS=EXAMINATION WITNESSES RECALLED (By Telegraph—Press Association,) NAPIER, Aug. 21. Giving evidence at the trial of Phyllis Leslie Tui Marshall, aged 13, charged with the attempted niurder of Alma Lorraine Keith on May 22 last, and alternatively that With intent to injure Miss Keith she attempted to cause her to take poison, a farm contractor employed by the Marshalls said that when he was talking to Masters at the time of the -Price murder trial Masters said that if Mr Marshall didn t watch himself he might find himself in the Supreme Court at the next session. Another farm contractor named Newland recalled Masters coming to the Marshalls’ house on June 28 and asking for him. Newland denied that Masters mentioned poison in chocolates. Mr Lusk searchingly cross-examined him as to whether the Marshalls had discussed Phyllis Marshall’s story with him about Masters putting poison in the chocolates but Newland remained firm that they had not done so.

Margaret Buchanan, a neighbouring farmer, testified to the accused's good character, saying she had never known her to do a mean or spiteful thing. Masters was recalled at the completion of the evidence for the defenceHe denied that accused and he. had imitated each other's hand writing. He also denied the allegation that he was seen in the Marshalls’ storeroom with a bottle of arsenic in his handAddressing the jury, Mr C. Harker, for the defence, submitted two stories for consideration, one that Marshall knowingly sent poisoned chocolates to Miss Keith and the other that she sent them unwittingly. Mr Harker traversed the evidence at length saying that if Mrs Marshall s and Bryan Marshall’s evidence were true why had Masters made false statements regarding his presence in the storeroom where the arsenic was kept? Being infatuated with Masters, it was not unlikely that Marshall would 1 want, to save him getting into trouble. That state of mind of Marshall disappeared only after she had been some time in prison and realised her duty to her mother and father.

Mr Harker submitted that the way in which Marshall’s story dovetailed in with that of the other witnesses indicated its truth. He submitted that Masters implicated Marshall to shield himself.