WIFE MURDER CHARGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20725, 19 November 1930, Page 13

WIFE MURDER CHARGE.

/ TOWNSEND IN COURT. 'DEFENCE PLEADS JNSANITY. EVIDENCE GIVEN BY DOCTOR. ACCUSED'S LACK OF REMORSE. fflT TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] NEW PLYMOUTH. Tuesdny. The trial of .Alexander Townsend, who 5s charged with tho murder of his wife, Cora Alice Townsend, was continued in the Supremo Court of New Plymouth today, when evidence for the prosecution was given on the lines of the evidence in tho Magistrate'v Court. The taxi driver who drove accused from ,Wnitara to Onaero on the morning after the alleged murder said (hat accused was rambling in his talk. Witness thought i'. was due-to drink. Accused did not have the th.ck speech of a drunken mail and could walk straight. He continued his rambling conversation during tlm whole of the journey in the car. Ernest Frederick Husp, brother-in-law of Mrs. Townsend, said he thought the reason for Townsend's visiting them at Onaero with a shotgun was because acwife and daughter had stayed

"with them. Mrs. Cherry Isabella Vickers, at whose house Mrs. Townsend died, said she had known Mrs. Townsend a long time. She went out on September 15, just hpforo Mrs. Townsend arrived. She returned between 10.50 p.m. and 10.'10 p.m. and went info tho kitchen, where she saw Mr. and M rs. Townsend and her sister, Miss Patchell. Townsend spoko to her. She could srnell drink strongly, but he was quiet and civil. Ife discussed family matters, saying he would not pay ary more money for his 1 daughter Jean's board. Ho wanted Mrs. Townsend to go outside, but she refused. Return ol Accused. When he asked his wife to go with him for a settlement witness suggested getting a taxi for both of them. Townsend was willing to do this, but Mrs. Townsend refused, and said something in an undertone.' Ho went away after telling lis wife, to put her hat and coat on, as he would wait, for her at the gate. It might have been a quarter of an hour later that he came back and stood at the door. He was given a cup of coffee. He was speaking more loudly and looked pale. He and his wife went down the passage toward the sitting room. Mrs. Townsend said she would meet him in the morning. Arrangements were mado for Mrs. Townsend and Miss Patchell to sleep in the sitting room. Witness then went to hed in a rcom with one of her daughters. She could not say what time it was that her sister came to awaken her. She came out into tho passage, whero she paw Mr. and Mrs. Townsend and Miss Tatciiell by the telephone. Townsend was speaking rather loudly. lie asked where tho telephone was. Witness showed him. whereupon he broke off the receiver. The husband and wife then xvent toward the sitting room. " I'm a Dead Man Now."

Later Mrs. Townsend called: "Bella, Bella, oh! 8e11a.." Then Townsend said: "I'm a. dead man now." Mrs. Townsend replied: "No, not yet, Alex." Witness heard neither of them speak again. She heard no sounds of struggling or fighting in the, sitting room- Slie went into another room with her girls. Constable King said that -when he was taken to the police Nation Townsend said : " I'm the man. I know what I have done, and I have done it for a good purpose. I must say 1 was drunk Inst night. 1 did it for my daughter's sake. Is she dead ?»' Detective Meiklejohn replied that accused's wife was dead, and Townsend said: "That's a good job. .Don't have a Court. Hang me right away. It ought to have been done years ago." Noticing a knife, and gun lying on the table, said witness, Townsend had said: "That's the knife and that's the gun. It was not used, but I can tell you, boys, if you had come along it would have been used." Townsend's condition was as if he were recovering from a drinking bout. Ho was not drunk and appeared to know what he was talking ahout. This concluded the Crown case. "An Insane Man."

"It must be obvious," said Mr. L. M. Moss, in opening his address to tho jury, "that you will have little difficulty in finding that the tiling which killed this unfortunate woman was the h<md of accused. Our defence is that at the time of tho commission of the act Townsend was an insane man, who protests his sanity when his mind is disordered. The test of insanity is, roughly, his sanity. He has invited the police to hang him. At the present moment that is his desire." Tho intention to commit mass murder, contended counsel, was evidence of insanity/. It was part of the Crown case that Townsend went to Onaero with the intention of wiping out the Huses, his sister-in-law and brother-in-law, and the Lathams, Latham being his father-in-law. /Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence had it, that a. sane man might kill two persons, but when a, man went beyond that, and showed intention to commit mass murder, he was insane. Townsend had a knife and gun and 20 cartridges. A£airi, unlike a sane man, ho had announced his intention to commit the murder.

Robert Henry Townsend, farmer, of Hamilton, and brother of accused, said that in recent, years a. change seemed to have comei over accused. Occasionally he would pass acquaintances iri the, street, and not recognise them. 1 Accused Very Changeable.

Patrick Crosbie, farmer, of Claudelands, eaid he had lived opposite to Townsend for several years. Fie described him as a nice man generally, but very changeable. During conversation he would change from one subject to another, apparently without reason. William Walter Smith, retired forester, said he had observed Townsend closely. He was a man of violently changing moods/ He appeared to have ari arrested mentality. His conversation was always of a frivolous nature and his mind never seemed to rise above that of a boy of 11 or 12 years. When alone ho would occasionally work himself into violent moorla. He would curse lo himself. On the night, of the tragedy, said witness, Townsend to the boarding house where witness was staying. Ho shook hands and said good-bye and that he was goinc; to swim the ocean to Sydney. Witness knew Townsend was spending his money at, the rate of £7OO a veaf.

Dr. E. \ Walker described his interview with Townsend in prison. He said accused seemed calm and collected. He was clear about, the last few hours, but was confused concerning the time of the tragedy. Hp had no remorse and said the deed was done well. Apparently he did not remember taking the knife out of his pocK-nt H-> said l:e found it there the next morning with blood on it.

[he/doctor's evidence had not concluded when the, Court adjourned until to morrow.