WELSH MURDER TRIAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17622, 8 November 1920, Page 7

WELSH MURDER TRIAL.

CASE FOR THE DEFENCE. POISON -EXPERTS' VIEWS. ACCUSED GIVES EVIDENCE. By TelesTaph—Press Association Copyright A. and N.Z. LONDON. Nov. 5. Sir E. Marshall-Hall, K.C., opening Incase for the defence in the trial of Harold Greenwood, the Kidwelly solicitor, who is charged with the murder of his first wife by the alleged administration of poison, intimated that he would call expert evidence to show that the death of Mrs. Greenwood was due to acute- gastric attacks, and not arsenical poisoning. Greenwood's daughter would give evidence that she took a glass of the same wine as her mother for lunch and supper. Counsel pointed out that Greenwood, if he had been guilty, could have obliterated traces of poison by cremating his wife's body. The accused, in an examination which lasted only four minutes, denied causing his first wife's death, and declared that j ! he was not on affectionate terms with his J present wife during the lifetime of his first wife. The latter had £900 a year, which went to their children on her death. His present wife had nothing. The cross-examination aimed at showing that Greenwood was on affectionate terms with his present wife two years | before the death of his first wife. Accused said that he proposed to his present wife four weeks after his first wife's death, but the idea to do so came suddenly that day. Under further cross-examination, Greenwood declared that the police superintendent's notebook purporting to contain his statement in reply to questions by the police before the exhumation of his late wife's body, was not the original notebook, or else the pages had been substituted for others torn out. The statement produced by the police superintendent had been mutilated by omissions and additions and the signature had been forged. The nurse who attended the late Ma-s. Greenwood told him that his wife died from morphia pills. He told the doctor just before the exhumation that he (the doctor) made a mistake in giving morphia pills, which were too strong for his wife. The doctor replied that the morphia pills were not injurious. The doctor, recalled, denied that Greenwood ever spoke to him about the pills. The nurse, recalled, denied telling Greenwood that the pills were too strong. Sir E. Marshall-Hall later withdrew the suggestion that the police superintendent's notebook had been, tampered with'. The prisoner's daughter, Irene, aged 22, gave evidence that she drank burgundy at luncheon with her mother from the bottle of wine with which the prosecution alleges the prisoner administered' the fatal dose of arsenic. Her mother became ill after teatime. Witness had another glass of bureundy at supper from the same bottle, and suffered no ill effects. The police had never asked her for a statement regarding the events of which she now gave evidence. Colonel Toogood, toxicoloeist to the London County Council, stoutly maintained the opinion that Mrs. Greenwood's death was due to morphia. He said he had performed seven thousand post-mortem examinations. Traces of momhia were not likely to remain at the date when the body was exhumed. "A second expert was of opinion that death was due to morphia, or heart failure from weakness.