PLEA OP INSANITY.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLII, Issue 1735, 10 February 1921, Page 5

PLEA OP INSANITY.

IN TIMARU MURDER CASE. SOME STARTLING DISCLOSURES (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night.

The trial of Reginald Matthews on the charge of having murdered Clarence Edward Wagstaffe at Timaru on October 17, was continued to-day. Additional evidence for the Crown was given by a number of witnesses. In opening for the defence, Mr C. S. Thomas said that the jury before convicting Matthews must be convinced that he committed the act and that the man when he committed it was sane and not insane. He hoped to be able to prove conclusively that Matthews was insane. Accused's hereditary history and his personal history were most extraordinary. Accused’s father was a drunken waster, a man of Intemperate sexual habits suffering when he married from sexual disease. His habits towards his wife and children were almost incredibly Inhuman. An uncle was a barrister and solicitor who stole, embezzled and was struck off the rolls. Another was a paralytic. Another was committed as an epcleptic. On the mother’s side there was a frightful history. The father of the mother was Dr. McCrystal, a clever man of brilliane parts. He was a doctor in India and came out to Southland. He was a habitual drunkard and a morphia fiend. He eventually dropped down to quite low levels and lived in a small village in the backblocks, eventually dying of an overdose of morphia self-inflicted. His wife, the mother of accused's mother, was also unfortunate. For a year or two she would be normal and then she would suddenly take to drink. At times she actually suffered from delirium tremens. Mrs Hall would tell of trouble she went through as a result of her mother’s unfortunate failings. A cousin was committed to Seacliffe asylum after the birth of a child, and another cousin committed suicide after having been kicked on the head by a horse. Another cousin was eccentric and a half sister of the mother was an inmate of a farm institution in Invercargill. She was what the jury know as "soft.” Tlr was the heredity 'history of Maty thews on his mother’s side. "Let us see exactly what the result. of the union was between these two unfortunate families,” Mr Thomas continued. “There is only one thing you would expect to find where you join up two families with Insanity and vice on both sides and that is insanity, and you find it. This young man’s eldest sister, Miss Ethel Bulman, was committed to Seacliffe asylum years ago, and is regarded as a hopeless case. A brother of accused, Clarence Percival Matthews began to show signs of abnormality at the age o sixteen. Finally he did very much what accused did. He got out a gun during an argument and shot at a man. He was committed as insane and put in Seacliffe. Another member of the family, an infant of five months, when born had one side of the head enlarged as though blown out, and the other side was cut away—that child was an idiot. That is the history of the family of this young man.” He intended to call Dr. Crosbie, Superintendent of Sunnyside, and Dr. Mclntosh, Superintendent of Seacliffe. Both would say that Matthews was suffering from paranoic insanity with sexual and persecutory delusions as well as being a well-de-fined epileptic. THE MOTHER’S EVIDENCE. Caroline Elizabeth Hall, wife of Richard Hall, of Taihape, said her first husband was accused’s father. He was a very bad husband. She hardly ever knew what it was to see him sober. He came home very drunk six weeks after they were married. During bouts he used to get up at night and go about the house quoting various parts of the Bible. Sometimes he would be childish, at others violent. She detailed incidents of his violence. Tie died in the Southland hospital from the effects of drink. He frequently threatened to kill her. Shortly before accused was born she obtained a. separation order against her husband. He used to come to the house at nights and bang the windows, frightening her. She married him at seventeen years of age. It was not n love match. His relations and hers were anxious for it to take place. His bl-other, Charles Matthews, a solicitor, was struck off the rolls, and another brother, Frederick, died in a lunatic asylum. Witness spoke of accused’s views on sexual matters and ascribed his alleged indecent actions to an internal weakness.

Three other witnesses gave evidence as to indecent acts committed by accused, two of them stating that when they went to apprehend him he produced a revolver and threatened to shoot them. The Court adjourned till to-morrow.