CHORLEY INQUEST

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 21 July 1944, Page 4

CHORLEY INQUEST

VERDICT NEXT WEEK WITNESS REFUSES TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS Wellington, This Day. . The verdict in the Chorley inquest will be given early next week. The I Wellington coroner. Mr W. G. Mel- : lish, announced this when the inquest ! concluded yesterday, stating that' some of the evidence was hearsay and some contradictory. He wanted time to consider it. Richard Townsend Chorley. a returned soldier, aged 23, died in Wellington Hospital on June 5 following an abdominal wound caused by a bullet at 74 Daniell street, Newtown, on his wedding night, May 4. He had married a niece of Mrs Mary Stuart Walker, aged 37, of that address. A charge of manslaughter was preferred against Mrs Walker which was altered to murder when Chorley died. A magistrate found there was no prima facie case to go to the Supreme Court and Mrs Walker was discharged from custody. Detective-Sergeant J. Thompson represented the police at the inquest; Mr J. Stacey appeared for Mrs Walker who continued her evidence yesterday, and, in the course of it refused to answer some questions on the ground that she might incriminate herself. Witness referred to a constable’s statement that he had more than once restrained her from entering a room where a sergeant was interviewing Mr and Mrs Walker, junior, denied that she wanted to get in because she thought these people might tell what had happened. She was used to firearms and had done much shooting. She recalled a shooting trip last Christmas when a fair amount of whisky was consumed. She did not recall on that occasion going into the bush with her niece. Mrs Doreen Chorley.

Detective-Sergeant •Thompson: Do you remember pointing a rifle at her? Mr Stacey appealed to the coroner to disallow the question. Detective-Sergeant Thompson: I am trying to show that if this witness has liquor and there is anyone about she wants to shoot at them. Mr Stacey: That’s wrong. Detective-Sergeant Thompson: We have evidence of it. The question was not allowed. Continuing, witness said she had a lapse of memory regarding the events of the night because she had been drunk. Detective-Sergeant Thompson: And then you don’t know what you are doing?—l wouldn’t say that. So the dead man’s story might be true because you don’t remember what happened?—l refuse to answer on the ground that I might incriminate myself. To Mr Stacey witness said she had made two long statements to the police explaining all she knew. There was no reason why she should shoot Chorley or Doreen Chorley: Mr Stacey: Have you ever had trouble with the relatives of Doreen Chorley? Detective-Sergeant Thompson objected. Mr Stacey said that witness had received surreptitious phone calls from "the ghost of Chorley.'’ The coroner: If it was a ghost it could not be the relatives of Chorley. The coroner declined to allow Mr Stacey to call Mrs Butterworth, who. Mrs Chorley said the previous day. had assaulted her when she said her husband’s death was not an accident. Mr Stacey said that Mrs Butterworth would refute this statement. The coroner considered the evidence unnecessary. Mr Stacey then called Cedric William Luke Walker, a stepson of Mrs Walker. He said that Chorley and he served overseas for three and a half years and were close friends. He had not objected to the police being in the bedroom of his wife and himself and gave them a statement. Chorley was treated as a son in the household and he knew of no disagreements with Mrs Walker. Detective-Sergeant Thompson: Have you done anything at all to find out who shot this great friend of yours?—No. From all I have heard I thought it had been an accident. Mr Stacey submitted that there was no additional material evidence before the Coroner's Court which was not produced in the Magistrate’s Court, where a prima facie case was not established. Because Mrs Walker could not satisfy the Court how the man died did not say that she shot him.—P.A.