COUNSELLED LOVER TO COMMIT SUICIDE

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3282, 27 February 1926, Page 9

COUNSELLED LOVER TO COMMIT SUICIDE

Last Scene of all in Dorn-Tetzlaff Drama SENTENCE OF TWO YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT [Per Press Association.] HAMILTON, Last Night. A young man i Roy Charles Dorn, stood in the dock at th© Supreme Court to-day, charged with attempting to murder Muriel Tetzlaff on January 7. and with counselling her to commit suicide. The major charge was withdrawn before the case went to the jury. When asked to plead, prisoner, who wore a worried look, in a firm voice answered "not guilty." He followed proceedings with keen Interest, occasionally flushing as the more sordid parts evidence were adduced. Muriel Tetzlaff. who appeared in Courlt looking very frail, pale and ill. told her story In a weak, nervous voice. She was attended by her mother, but Mr. Tomkins, for prisonei objected to too close an attendance by the parent, as counsel alleged in the lower court the mother had no'ticcably prompted the daughter in certain answers. The mother was permitted to remain, but at some distance. Brokenly, the girl told the Story of how she first met Dorn and their subsequent relationship. When she found she was hbotifc to become a mother. she pressed Dorn to marry her. He made no offer to do so. telling her the girl he loved was at Gisborne. Evidence given, along the linos of the lower court, showed that Dorn had given the girl ammonia and cordite for her to take to put herself out of the way. Witness had written letters to Dorn to the effect that she loved him better than life itself and was going to put herself out of the way so that he might go free, asking him to "not to forget the little fool who loved him unwisely but only too well." Letters written to her mother and Dorn’s mother, indicated her intention to commit suicide. She took poison in a house at Ngaruawahla and was violently ill.

Under cross - examination to-day, th e girl said she had, on more than one occasion, threatened to take her life, but this was only to frighten Dorn into marrying her. She had no Intention, however, of committing suicide.

Dora_ In evidence, said ho gave the cordite thinking to give her headache merely tcj frighten her. Tho ammonia was weak, and -he did not eitpec|t it to kill the girl, nor even that she would take it.

The jury, after a brief retirement, found accused guilty, and a sentence of two years’ imprisonment was passed. :

DEATH IN GAOL, ECHO OP ATROCIOUS CRIME. AUCKLAND, Last Night. A prisoner t George Dunn, aged 39, who was serving a sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for ffranslaughter, imposed at Napier on Juno 10, 1921, died at Mt. Eden gaol infirmary. At the inquest medical evidence was given that death was due to heart failure, A verdict was returned accordingly. George Dunn, who was convicted at Napier in June 1921. of the manslaughter of Marion Baird, aged seventy-one years at Hastings, in circumstances of callous brutality, was sentenced by Mr. Justice Reed to twenty years’ hard labour. His Honour, in addressing Dunn, said: "i'ou have) been rightly convicted of an abominable and atrocious crime. Many a man who has paid the perially of his life for murder was not guilty of half the brutality you used. Th 6 appalling brutality of your crime marks you as being a creaiture so vile as to be unfit fto associate with decent oelngs.’’