TEN YEARS' HARD LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14299, 19 February 1910, Page 5

TEN YEARS' HARD LABOUR.

TRIAL OF GEORGE OLIVER. ' KINGSLAND SHOOTING CASE.

The hearing of the case in which George Oliver was charged with attempted murder, and attempted suicide at Kingsland recently was continued at the' Supreme Court yesterday, before Mr. Justice Cooper. The prisoner, who had pleaded not guilty, was defended by Mr. A. .E. Skelton, whilst the Hon. J. A. Tole, K.C., prosecuted for the Crown. Rebutting evidence, as to the prisoner's state of, mind, was called by the Crown. • Dr. Darby, gaol surgeon at Mount Eden, said he had had .conversations with prisoner, and he thought prisoner, in his present condition, was sane, and had been so since witness had known him—since about January 26. Witness had asked prisoner about the occurrence at Kingsland, and prisoner had explained the affair. He had told witness that he could have shot his wife in the passage, but ho coaxed her into the room. Witness thought accused understood tho nature and quality of the action. He would venture an opinion that at the time the act was committed prisoner knew it was wrong. Cross-examined, witness said he found suffering from thickening of the arteries. He understood that prisoner had been very restless while at his farm, but ho would not call it strictly insomnia. Witness had not on January 26 made a thorough examination of prisoner in re , spect to his mental condition, but he had made a special examination on February 5,. '. ' . ~_•;, • ..' Mr. Skelton put to witness a combination of the circumstances which had characterised prisoner's conduct while on the farm, as f detailed by witnesses, and then asked Dr. Darby if the acts cited were not evidences of degeneration. Witness replied that they might be mere eccentricities. "Lots of men are going about like that,'? he continued, "and there are many people outside asylums who ought to be inside." There were many men walking about the streets manifesting similar eccentricities. If those symptoms were present, prisoner was fully capable of understanding the nature and quality of the action and of knowing' that it was wrong. The gaoler at Mount Eden said there was nothing in prisoner's demeanour while in gaol to lead witness to suppose that there was anything wrong with him men-. tally. He had always conducted himself and behaved like a sane man. Another witness said, that Oliver had said to the doctor in the gaol that it was no use his saying that he did not know what he had done, was wrong, because he did know. •■-■'■■ Amy Oliver, recalled, said that at an interview she had with her father at the gaol, he had said the .police should not have got the letter he had written to her; it was Ahe only thing that would put the rope iound his neck. • Dr. Beatty, superintendent of the Avondale Mental Hospital, said that ,at the present time he could see no indication of insanity about prisoner, who had lold him j that he knew precisely what he was going to do before the occurrence took place. Prisoner also gave further details about the matter to witness. At times prisoner had said ho had complained about ] painsl at the back of his head. ' With regard to the shooting, prisoner, certainly knew the nature and 1 quality of the action. Witness could hardly say if prisoner knew whethei the act was wrong, though the presumption was that he did. \ In cross-examination, witness said that a medical man would want more than the-combination' of i circumstances which had been put before I Dr. Darby, ~ before he would certify to insanity. Mr. Skelton and Mr. Tole both addressed the jury at considerable length. His Honor, in the course of his sum-ming-up, said there s were only two possible verdicts for. the jury to come to in the case: either one of guilty on the whole of the indictment, or not guilty on the f round that the , prisoner was a lunatic, ho defence was that at the time he committed the assault' he was insane. \ Every man was presumed to' be eane \ until he was proved to be insane, and the onus of proof of insanity , ; rostedNon the defence. Insanity before •or after the time a man committed an act might be evidence that he was insane nt the'time the act was committed. The evidence was quite clear that up to two or three years ago prisoner was a man of considerable ability as a tradesman, and lived happily with his family. After that prisoner's' moral fibre seemed to have degenerated, and there was no doubt that for some time prior to December 29, the date of the affair, the prisoner's mental and physical condition was not so good as it had been previously. The prisoner's solitary life, which he had lived on the farm at Oratia, no doubt did not act beneficially on his mind. He had been nursing grievances, : which were more or' less imaginary, against his wife and his son. In the physical, condition he was in the nursing of these delusions had brought about a mental state in which he seemed to have thought that his family took no interest in him; that he was an/outcast, that; he was right, and his family were •wronir.. ' He, therefore, thought, he would kill his wife 'arid then kill himself. There was no doubt that the man really did. suffer from a load which had been caused probably by delusions., The indication from the letter which prisoner-had written was that; whatever might have been \ ; the condition of his ■ mind, he knew what he was about when he wrote the letter.,, The fact that accused had 'written on the morning of. the 29thV that ho-; had ; slept as sound; m a bell ' the night, before, and that that was what :he had not'done for a long time previously,' showed that the fact that he had 'absolutely and definitely mode up his mind, had relieved him considerably. . It was for the jury to say whether, considering the, circumstances, thev could accept the medical evidence of the- three doctors called for the "defence, who said that the man was practically insane. ■ The rebutting medical evidence called by the. Crown was to the effect that he knew what he waft doing. . The jury, after a retirement of an hour and three-quarters, returned a yerdict of guilty. . ;' ■:•' " \' - ; ■ ' -■ .' ' Mr. Skelton asked that the clemency, of the Court be extended v to-the prisoner. ,There was rfoj doubt that at the time he had committed the deed he/was ! suffering from mental defeneration. Mr. Skelton also drew His Honor's attention- to the man's state of health at present, and asked 'if His Honor might make it a ■ direction to the gaoler that Oliver might be treated differently from, the other prisoners. His Honor said that all he could do was to impose a sentence with or without hard labour, . '. ;--. : : '"

Addressing the prisoner, His Honor said that he quite agreed that the prisoner's health was bad, and that he was mentally degenerating, and that, in justice to him and; for the safety of his family, lie mtiet pass a long sentence, and' look upon the crime as a verv serious offence. He felt that he would be failing in his duty if he did not impose a sentence which for manv years to come- would protect the prisoner's family and himself. ■ Prisoner would be sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour lon : the charge, of attempted murder. ; His Honor said it was unnecessary to pass any sentence on the other count.' ).:';'■ . , ■;{'%'■ 7 ; > ' ■'. " : : 77 777.-