CHARGE OF MURDER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 252, 21 September 1933, Page 8

CHARGE OF MURDER.

EVIDENCE AT WELLINGTON. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Sept. 21. George Edward James, an engine driver, aged 57, who was rescued irom drowning at Thorndon on June 30, the day on which Mrs Cecilia Smith and her seven-year-old son were found dead under tragic circumstances, appeared before Mr E. Page, S.M., to-day, charged with murdering Mrs Smitn. The hearing of evidence will probably take two days. Accused, who is very deaf, was allowed to leave the dock and sit close to the witness box. Senior-Sergeant Ditinie produced a number of photographs of the flat at Ohiro Road, referred to as James’s Elat, and of Mrs Smith and her son. Among the exhibits was a photograph of a. bloodstain on a piece of newspaper and a lantern slide showing a rubber heel, which, it was stated, coincided with the bloodstain. Plans of the flat, showing bloodstains, were produced by Philip Rex Rose and plans of the district by Harold William Ealkner, chief surveyor of the Wellington City Council, who gave details of the distances by various routes from the flat to a fisherman’s hut on the beach at Shelly Bay Road, and from there to shed 45 at Thorndon. Eileen Jean McKenzie, who had the authority to let the flat, said accused called on her on the evening of June 6. She understood him to say he had got married on the Mondav and wanted his wife to see the flat. The rent was 15s 6d per week. Accused moved in the following day and paid the rent for a week in advance. On June 8 she met a woman going up the stairs with a little boy and addressed her as Mrs James, and asked her how she liked the Hat. The woman said she was not Mrs James, and witness had since learned that she was Mrs Smith. About a week later witness saw the woman again. The woman said she was not Mrs James, but was going to get married on the Monday. She said James had a lot of worry and had had a Court case and they were not going to get married until it was fixed. Telford Richard Williams, who occupied one of the flats, said he knew the couple as Mr and Mrs James and thought the boy was their son. On the morning of June 30 he was awakened by a scream from the woman, and the boy gave a short scream or cry. The woman then gave another scream. There was no cry for help in any shape or form, therefore he took no notice.' He went down to the bathroom and as he closed the door heard the woman say: “Oh George, go for the doctor. I am done.” He heard no more after that. He was sure it was Mrs Smith who said that. He did not hear accused speak at all, nor the boy. It was at 7.30 o’clock that witness heard the scream and at 8.30 or 8.45 that he saw accused and the boy going up the steps towards Ohiro Road. Accused was holding the boy by the hand. Witness went on to tell of how he communicated with the police at 6 p.m. and of the finding of the woman dead. A blood r staine<l table knife was found near the chair in the room. Later he identified the body of the boy Noel at the morgue. Richard James Brown, a student of Wellington College, who lived next door to the flat, said he left home at 8.30 that morning. He saw a small boy come out of the gate and a man come after, wheeling a bicycle. As witness passed the boy said: “Are we going for a ride on the bike, daddy?” The man replied in the affirmative. He saw them later in Willis Street. On September 18 he picked out accused in an identification parade. Similar evidence was given by Albert George Clifford. This witness, ‘ however, had been unable to identify the man at the police station. Leslie Richard Moore, a tramway motorman, who said he had taken particular notice of the man and the boy on the bicycle in Crawford Road, also said that at the identification parade he identified accused as the man. Witness remember the date because the kiddie was “laughing like anything” and it just reminded him that it was his own kiddy’s birthday and that it was pay day.