CAPITAL CHARGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 138, 13 May 1941, Page 5

CAPITAL CHARGE

j WELLINGTON TRIAL OPENS. | (Press Assn.) WELLINGTON, May 12. I The trial ot Leonard Neding, aged ,29. on a charge of murdering Mrs : Marjory Livingstone Horton, at "WellJ iiigton, on or about January 9. 1941, | opened before the Chief Justice (Sir j Aliehael Mvers) to-dav. Air C. H. Weston, K.C., and Air W. R. Birksj j arc appearing for the Crown, and Air: | W. E. Leicester and Air T. P. Alc- ; i Carthy for the defence. There are 32 'Crown witnesses. Accused pleaded not j • guilty. Air Weston opened the case for the 1 i Crown, outlining events as described | in the Lower Court hearing. He deI scribed how Mrs Horton returned to I the city from a visit to Lower Hiltt I in a bus in which accused was also J travelling. On their arrival in Well • ! ington accused and Airs Horton left ! the bus together, soon aiterwards entering a taxi. Counsel described how drink was obtained by accused at an hotel and how the pair went to Oriental Bay. The taxi-driver would tell I the Court that accused and Airs Hor-| ton went down a hank at Oriental Bay l alter the taxi was paid off. Airs Hor-j ton was found the following day hum j conscious with her face battered and ; bruised and a broken jaw. A man’s bloodstained handkerchief was found ! imbedded i?i the sand. t I It would seem, said Air Weston, that Mrs Horton, while standing on the pebbles, was struck in the face with a fist. She was then forced back on the parapet. The Crown’s suggestion ’was that the assailant knotted a handkerchief round her face and then throttled her. Accused, counsel added, had been I accosted by the police at Auckland on j January 23 and the police had taken . : possession of a suit he was wearing , and a bloodstained handkerchief. Evidence was then proceeded with.