Magistrate Dismisses Charge Against Boy

Northern Advocate, 14 July 1949, Page 3

Magistrate Dismisses Charge Against Boy

ROTORUA, Thu. (Sp.).—Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M., yesterday dismissed a charge of manslaughter against a Maori boy aged 9. Accused was alleged to have struck his 11-year-old brother repeatedly with a broom handle on June 22, thereby causing his death.

“I am asked to believe that within a short space of 10 minutes the very extensive bodily injuries suffered by deceased were caused by the accused, but is it not more likely that those injuries were committed by an adult?” said Mr Freeman. Detective-Sergeant J. B. McLean prosecuted and Mr E. Roe appeared for accused.

Accused's mother stated that on the morning of June 22 she heard the younger of her two adopted sons, the accused, speaking in a temper to the older boy in their bedroom.

ent of Rotorua Hospital, said that when the boy was admitted to hospital almost the whole of his body was covered with abrasions and bruises. Mr Roe submitted that the case for the prosecution was very slender.

A few minutes later she heard accused shouting outside and saw deceased naked in some blackberry bushes in the back yard. Accused was hitting his brother with what looked like a broom handle. DID NOT WAKE UP Witness went out to stop accused hitting deceased. She picked deceased up from the ground, which was wet. and led him to a tub. in which she intended to wash him. Deceased' was cold and shivering. To hurry him. witness pushed him. and he fell down.

Under Section 42 of the Crimes Act, it was necessary to satisfy a jury that an accused person of that age knew the rightness or wrongness of an act and what would follow it.

“This case shows how absolutely necessary it is that all matters known to the police should be brought to the notice of the court." said the magistrate in dismissing the charge. He said the evidence of the boy Wright must have impressed everyone in the court.

She sent accused to get cold water in a bucket from a near-by house.

The mother had not told the court the whole story. The case would not even pass a grand jury if sent on.

She poured the water over the other boy's head. He could not wash himself. She took deceased inside and put him to bed.

When the boy did not wake up in the afternoon, she called her husband from work and deceased was taken to hospital. Accused was a bright boy and deceased subnormal, witness stated. She would hit both boys when they were naughty, sometimes with a strap and sometimes with a whip. She did not hit deceased that morning. Accused's father said accused told him later that he had hit deceased with a stick, a broom handle and a coal shovel. The boys had been good friends. HEARD SCREAM Selwyn John Wright, aged 10. said that on his way to school he passed accused's home and heard a scream coming from the back yard. Witness got oil' his bicycle and watched. He saw a Maori woman chasing deceased. who was naked, around the yard and hitting him with a stick. The woman threw a bucket of water over deceased.

John Charles Mather, railway fireman. said he lived near accused's home and had heard no screaming that morning.

The magistrate: Did you ever see the mother using a stick or whip' on the boy? Witness: Yes. I have seen her use part of a limb of bluegum on deceased and on some occasions a broom stick.

On those occasions did the child cry out?—No. he made no sound at all. Dr W. J. Watt, acting superintend-