The Dean Case.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 13, 30 July 1895, Page 2

The Dean Case.

» APPEAL DISMISSED. Tbe motion for leave to appeal in the case Begina v. Minnie Dean wag argued in the Appeal Court on Saturday, all the judges b«mg present. Dr Findlay appeared in support of the motion, and Mr T. M. Maodonald (Invercareill) and Mr Gully (Crown Prosecutor for Wellington) for the Grown. Mr Findlay, in opening big case, stated that he was unable to support the > . first ground of motion. He could not contend that the evidence as to the infant Hornsby had been improperly admitted. He would contend, however, that the evidence as to the other infants and the finding of a skeleton at the' Larches had been improperly admitted. In his argument Mr Findlay submitted that the case M'kin v. Attorney General of New South Wales, on the authority of which the evidence objected to bad been admitted, did not apply. That ease - had merely repeated what was previously . established, namely that evidence of tbe- l conduct of an accused on other occasions similar to that charged in the particular . case under trial could be given to dispose of the suggestion that the particular aet charged was accidental, or to rebnt any other similar defence open to the accused. In the present case evidence had been admitted, professedly to eliminate the element of accident, but at the time of its admission' there was pp evidence of nccident. It had pot b,een suggested that if Mrs Dean administered^ morphia f© the child' she had, done it accidentally. Evidence of Mrs J}e»n'-« dealing with other phildren was therefore not properly admissible to disprove accident, and unless genuinely offered for that purpose, could not be admitted merely to strengthen general evidence - against the accused. To make evidence of other acts admissible they must appear to be part of a series of similar occurrences and to be parts of one - scheme, Ju the present oata (he essentials of previous ooourrenoes were not sufficiently similar ; there was want* ing the essential circumstances of finding the bodies of other children alleged to have been received by Mrs Dean, and in oase of finding the skeleton of a child in her garden there was nothing to identify it in any way as that of any ohili taken in by Mrs Dean. Dr Findlay concluded his argument shortly before 1 o'olock, when the Court ' intimated that they did not desire to hear counsel for the Crown theD, and if they required to hear them they wou'd do so on Monday morning. When the Appeal Court resumed on Monday in the Dean case, the Bench said it was unnecessary to call on Mr Macdonatd to reply. The judges were unanimous that there was no oase to answer. They would give their reasons m writing on Wednesday.