HUSBAND’S TRIAL

Hokitika Guardian, 12 October 1933, Page 6

HUSBAND’S TRIAL

WIFE TERRIBLY INJURED.

ACCUSED CONFESSES DEED.

(Per Press Association, Copyright).

AUCKLAND, October 12

John Shaw Gordon, aged 68, a bricklayer, was charged in. the police court to-day that early on the morning of August 30, he did actual bodily harm to his wife, Kellie Gordon. He was also charged with attempted suicide. Evidence was given by a doctor that he was called by accused’s son, . and found the uvoman lying covered iu blood from head wounds- One side of her head seemed almost pulped. In another room accused wa s dying °n a bed, bleeding freely front .v.a.jthrpat wound. .. .. -■ •

Witness >askecl where the instrument was • wti’h which ; aeuuse(i'-had -injured his wile, and accused, replied that it was in .the back, garden. Witness found a, blood-stained hammer. _ Maurice John Gordon, accused’s son, •who lived in .a bach at the back of the house said that big parents had been .on the, best of terms, except when his father had drink. About 5.30 in the morning his another called him into the house, and the found his father sitting up in bed, bleeding from the neck. His mother told him to get a doctor, ighe did not say what had happened, hut he noticed her head matted with blood. A constable who was called to the house said lie asked accused who caused liis injuries, and accused replied: “I did it. myself and made a mess of it.” >•;

A dectective who saw accused in the hospital said that accused, when asked how,, his wife was injured, replied: “Well .there she is, and here am I. It does not take much to find out who inflicted the injuries. All I have go to. say is I’m sorry I did not make a better job of it and get myself off tlie face of the earth. I have nothing else to say, and you ca,n go . right ahead, because 1. don’t care if they do hang ine.” The .court, adjourned until later in the afternoon when the wife’s evidence will be taken at her bedside.