INVALID'S DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22827, 7 September 1937, Page 6

INVALID'S DEATH

CHARGE AGAINST WIFE ALLEGATIONS OF SHOOTING JURY FAILS TO AGREE ACQUITTED AT NEW TRIAL [FROi OUR OWN CO I! .RESPONDENT] SIDNEY, Sepl. 2. The jury, having failed to agree, was locked up for the night in the Central Criminal Court last night, in the case in which Mary Cecilia Thomas, aged 39, is charged with the murder of her husband, William Thomas, at Puller's near Chatswood, on August 19. Subsequently a now trial was ordered. In an impassioned statement from the dock, the - accused repudiated a statement alleged to have been made by her admitting the shooting. She alleged that detectives had forced her to make it. Police witnesses later denied that they attempted any intimidation. Tho case was heard before Mr. Justice Milner Stephen, the accused pleading not guilty. Crown Case Opened Tho Crown Prosecutor, Mr. McKean, K.C., said the accused's husband was suffering from an advanced form of cardiac asthma, due to heart disease and tuberculosis. He had only a few weeks to live, and was no doubt that he had endeavoured to induce the doctor to give him an extra injection in order to end his life. At other times he had made various similar requests to others. "There is no doubt," said Mr. McKean, "that Thomas had very little time to live, but the law does not sanction the taking of human life, however desperate the case may ce. It is not competent for any person man or otherwise—to end a person's life, however near death that person may be." Mr. McKean, after telling the jury of the purchase of a rifle and bullets by the accused, said that she at first told the police her 'husband had carried out a threat, often repeated, to shoot himself. Later she made a statement. Accused's Statement During the month before his death, the statement said, accused's husband had on many occasions said to her: "J wish I was dead." On the day of his death, her husband said: "Shoot me in the head and get ljie out of my misery." Accused, the statement continued, said "All right." She then picked up the rifle, pointed it at her husband's temple and pulled the trigger, afterwards putting tho rifle on his chest and placing his hands on it. At the close of the Crown case, Mr. McTague said that accused would make her statement from the dock. "I iam not guilty of this charge of murder," said accused. Then she broke down and sobbed bitterly. A policewoman entered the dock to comfort her, but the accused, amid sobs, told her to go away. Later, a woman friend sat beside her. Accused Continues Evidence

Having composed herself, the accused continued: "I have evidence from the boy, four years of age. He saw his father shoot himself. I want Detectives Matthews, Barber and Chuck.called — all the men who were with me on the night I was taken to the Chatswood station, from five to eleven, with mv baby in my arms. I want them in this Court. There is evidence against them. "Detective Matthews said that I did shoot/him. He said, 'lf you did not, vou will be held np for wilful murder. The doctor will say that you shot him.' My husband was bed-ridden. I nursed him for three years ... My husband could plant tomatoes and do gardening and anything. "I did not kill him. I am not guilty. My boy said, 'Mother, daddy shot himself.' And I am accused by detectives who want stripes, that is all they want. I am fighting for my three children and niyself. They won't tell me where thy husband is buried. What sort of people are they?" Evidence ot Doctors At the request of the foreman of the jviry, Dr. Percy was called, and in replv to a question, said, in his opinion, the wound that caused death could have been self-inflicted with the rifle. Dr. Gunning said, in answer to a jurvman, that the deceased was, ho considered, strong enough to get the rifle from underneath tho bed and shoot himself. ' , „ The jury failed to agree and a new trial was ordered.

A Press Association cablegram from Sydney yesterday st f at^;!~A^ c jJ® second trial to-day of Mary Cecilia Thomas, charged with murdering hrr husband, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty and the woman was discharged.