EVIDENCE OF WIFE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 81, 17 March 1933, Page 8

EVIDENCE OF WIFE

CHARGE AGAINST HUSBAND. LEGAL INTERPRETATION. Reserved decision in the case of Raymond Hector Judd, who was charged with unlawfully presenting a loaded firearm at Nina Christiana Judd, was given by Mr J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., in the Lower Hutt Police Court. At the previous hearing legal argument took place on the question of whether a wife could be called to give evidence against her husband, and the proceedings were adjourned. Some discussion also arose in the meaning of the word “present,” and the magistrate dismissed the information. In his judgment, the magistrate said that the statement of defendant was the only evidence, and taking this statement he was satisfied that defendant did not present the firearm at any person withiu the meaning of the Act. At the hearing of the ease he had refused to compel the wife of defendant to give evidence, and after referring to authorities on such cases had come to the conclusion that his decision had been right, although the matter was not free from doubt. The wife had asserted to the police that defendant had presented the rifle at her, but had she been compelled to give evidence she might have said that she was hysterical and excited at the time and that what she had said was not correct. On the other hand, the wife might have refused to give evidence, in which case he would have had to convict her to contempt of court. The magistrate went on to say that the decisions of the Court of Appeal in New Zealand and the Court of Criminal Appeal in England were different, but the cases were not exactly similar

“It is difficult to say exactly how the law stands on the question,” concluded Mr Hewitt.