NO MURDEROUS INTENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17033, 14 December 1918, Page 10

NO MURDEROUS INTENT

•, -+. . THE ALFRISTON CASE, ACCUSED. GUILTY OF ASSAULT. ' ,A charge, of. attempting to murder his '». wife, Eleanor Freda Arnold, was preferred '•' against John A. . Arnold (Mr. Allan Moody), before Mr. Justice Cooper, in the ' Supremo Court yesterday. He was fur- > thcr charged with. assn.ult with intent * to maim, disfigure, or do grievous D bodily harm, and that he did actual I bodily harm; also that he caused actual j * bodily harm under such circumstances 8 that 'if death had resulted he would . have been guilty of murder. A plea, i of not guilty was entered On all J charges. II The Hon. J. A. Tola, K.C, who prosef cutfld, stated that tho parties had been r married about 13 years, and there were f six children. They lived on a farm at t Alfriston, owned by Mrs. Arnold's father, f , who resided with them. Accused was i! employed as a worker on the farm. Oil - I tho evening of Sunday, October 15, after ( i seeing some visitors off the premises, 1 ! accused complained of his wife having t private conversations with her father. She • I told him that he was making her life' i • miserable by his ill-treatment, and said I I she could not continue to live with him. i After several remarks in this strain, Mrs. .■ | Arnold said " this will have to end," to i 1 which be replied. " this' will be the end- ) ing," and sprang at her, taking her by the throat and choking her into uncoilsciotisness. When she recovered conscious-j ness sho asked for a drink of water, and ! he pushed her into the bedroom, where! she again lost consciousness. He later i dragged her into the diningrbom, where he nit her over the head with some wooden object, and threw her back into] > the bedroom. She again lost conscious- > >■ ness, and, on recovering, found her hands J > tied with a strip of cloth. Sho got up i • and freed her hands, accused meantime. 1 I 'dropping pieces of burning paper on the i ! I floor and sprinkling what she thought was > I kerosene on them. The Woman got away ' and went towards her mothcr'a bouse,, 1 ' about half-a-mile away, and on looking ; 1 back, saw her own home in flames Accused was arrested in the vicinity the '" next day, and admitted half-killing his J wife, saying that he had tried to drown i himself. r Evidence was given by Eleanor Freda > Arnold, who said that her husband was 5 of a very jealous disposition, and had, on } more than one occasion, threatened to "do 1 for her" in the event of her leaving him. 1 To Mr. Moody: She denied' that i sho 1 carried on her conversations with her 5 father 1 in the German language, stating ! that while she could understand German. she could not speak it. • { John Henry Hansen, Mrs. Arnold's father, ! Btated that accused's temper was erratic, giving the impression that at times he " was not "quite right." He emphatically ! denied that he ever quarrelled with ac- * cused because of his sympathies with tho Germans, or gloated over the reports of German victories. Ho said that he had " been 40 years' in New Zealand, and his , sympathies were with the British. Mo i denied that be conversed with his relatives 'in German. ' ' ; ' ■ ' I Qretchen Arnold, a daughter of the act cused, said that on hearing screams she wont to the diningroom, where she saw her father holding her mother by the hair, and apparently endeavouring to bring her in contact with the hanging lamp. Her father ordered her to go back to bed, ' which she did, but, on hearing more k screaming, got np and, on seeing the fire, took the other children out of the house. Evidence was given by neighbours of the ' Arnolds that accused bore an excellent character. " Mr. Moody did not call evidence. in addressing tho jury, he admitted that the 'accused had commijted a violent assault ' on his wife, but submitted that Arnold had no deliberate intention of murdering her. He said he could not put the accused in the witness-box, " " would not recollect any' of the events connected with the charges. Ho contended that Mrs. 1 Arnold -was not a competent withes*, as ■ she was evidently a highly-strung woman, • whose recollection was not too clear, and I could not altogether be relied upon. i The jury, after a short retirement, found accused not guilty of attempted murder, ' but returned a verdict of guilty on the • charee of assault with intent to do

UU<*lgO V*' UOOWU»» ...- -—- _T i grievous bodily harm. • The Judge remarked that the verdict • was a very proper one. Sentence was > deferred until Monday.