GAMEKEEPER SHOT DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20520, 22 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

GAMEKEEPER SHOT DEAD.

DRAMA IN A WOOD. MURDER CHARGE FAILS. GUN EXPERT'S EVIDENCE. A murder trial collapsed and ended in a remarkable manner before the evidence for the Grown., was completed, at the Suffolk Assizes recently. George Whistlecraft, aged 60, a sturdy Suffolk farm labourer, from the little village of liickinghall Inferior, was charged with the wilful murder of Charles Edward Cornwell, a gamekeeper, in the service of Lord Playfair, by shooting him with a shotgun in Stubbings Wood at Botesdale, not far from Eye, on the evening of Sunday, December 8. Counsel for the prosecution stated that Cornwell,when chasing a supposed poacher through the wood, was shot in the chest by Number 5 small shot from a ,410-bore gun. Mr. J. D. Cassels, K.G., prosecuting, said that five .410 cartridges—two fired and three 1 misfires—were found by the police in (ho wood. A .410 Belgian-made folding gun was taken from Wliistlccrafl.'s house after his arrest. Footprints of Running Man. Villagers, said Mr. Cassels, had seen tlie man that Sunday afternoon going in the direction of the wood. Footprints ot' a running man were discoveied leading from the wood, and these marks were similar to the prints made by the shoes worn by Whistlecraft. The first of the legal points which arose concerned the admission as evidence of certain statements, which, it was explained by counsel, Cornwell was alleged to have made to a game-watcher named William Scott, who was patrolling with him in Stubbings on the Sunday evening. One statement was a remark which Cornwell half shouted out when he saw a third man in the wood by the light of his electric torch, and the second was after he had been wounded. The argument was carried,on with the jury out of Court. Mr. G. Howard, counsel for the defence, submitted to Mr. Justice McCardie that the statements could not be told in the evidence, and the judge ruled against the Crown, " having regard to the special circumstances of this case," Features of Gun. 1" urther difficulty arose for the prosecution when Mr. Rofjert Churchill, a gun expert, of London, was in the witness box. The Cartridges picked up in the wood, said Mr. Churchill,*, had been used in a .410 gun, which often misfired, which had a striker which was blunt and which often struck. He said he had examined the .410 gun fiom Whistlecraft's house. That gun misfired on occasions, and the striker stuck, but the striker was a sharp one. and not blunt. " I cannot swear," he added, " that this gun fired these cartridges, or

that they were not fired by this gun." " 1 his is a very serious point in your way," continued Mr. Justice McCardie, turning to Mr. Cassels. " I agree," answered counsel, "" assuming that these cartridges had anything to do with the crime." ■ •

" But," . went on . the judge, "those cartridges are part of your case. You cannot have it both ways. Is there anv evidence to connect this man with the use of this gun. ?" Prosecution Withdrawn. •Mr. Cassels: Only that it was found by the police it> tlie house where he resides, and in the room where he was sitting.

A brief consultation took place between Mr. Cassels and Mr. Pushiey, from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and then Mr. Cassels made the following declaration: — "I am prepared to take the responsibility. upon myself, appearing as I do for the prosecution, and to say, in the interests of justice—which is the only consideration we have in mind—that it would not bo right to go further with the case for the prosecution. I shall therefore offer no other evidence."

The judge then directed the jury to return a verdict of "Not guilty" and Whistlecraft was discharged. Earlier in the proceedings William Scott had told a vivid story of his experiences in Stubbings Wood when Cornwell, the gamekeeper, was killed. Man In Torchlight. " We heard four shots," he said. "The last was about 15 yards away from us in tho high growth. Cornwell flashed his torch on a tree, and I saw a man in the torchlight—a short, stout man. I could recognise him again by his build. I never saw his face. He started to run away, and we ran after him. Cornwell kept his torch on the running man, who was about four-yards away from him. " Cornwell was in some tajl undergrowth when I heard a fifth shot, and Cornwell came toward me. lie had been Shot, but did not then seem in pain. "We walked along together out of

the wood until Cornwell began to stagger, and I helped him to sit down by a pile of hurdles. I went to get help, and when 1 came back again I found Cornwell dead."