FARMER'S DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23033, 10 May 1938, Page 16

FARMER'S DEATH

TRAGEDY AT SWANSON 1 TFtIAL OF SON OPENS CASE FOR THE CROWN ALLEGATIONS BY DEFENCE The trial of Francis Borgia Spensley, a farm labourer 19 years of age, on a charge of murdering his father, Robert Fitzroy Spensley, was begun before Mr. Justice Fair and a jury in tho Supreme Court yesterday. The deceased was a Swanson farmer, and the charge is that the son shot him at his home, No. 1 Road, Swanson, on or about February 7 last. The body was found on the property on March IS with two bullet wounds in the head. The Crown -Prosecutor, Mr. V. R. Meredith, with him Mr. N. I. Smith, conducted the prosecution, and Mr. Allan J. Moody, instructed by Mr. E. C. Blomfield, appeared for the defence. Of the 21 witnesses being called by the Crown, 10 completed their evidence yesterday, and the 11th was still in the box. When ' the charge was read the accused answered "Not guilty" in a. firm voice. In view of the necessity for keeping the jury strictly together until the completion of the trial the Court granted a brief adjournment, after the jurors had been empanelled, to enable them to get in touch with their homes. Outline ol the Case Mr. Meredith said the accused's father ha.d been more or less missing for a considerable period before his body was found on March 13 under a heap of hay alongside the house where he and the accused had been living together. As a result, inquiries were promptly made and the accused was arrested on the present charge. The deceased was a man 64 years of age. He had been three times married and was a widower at the time of his death. Mrs. Pender, who would be giving evidence, was a daughter by the first marriage, and the accused was a son by the second marriage. Mrs. Pender had the habit of meeting her father every Friday at the city fruit market. Mr. Meredith produced photographs of the scene and said the house in which the Spensleys lived was a tworoomed cottage with a lean-to. There was a small cowshed close by. One of the bedrooms of the house was oc- ! cupied by the accused and the other | by his father. Mrs. Pender would say that her father was a severe sufferer from asthma, and had the habit of sleeping propped up with pillows to assist his breathing. He always slept in shirt and underclothing.

Last Seen Alive Probably deceased was last seen alive, Mr. Meredith said, on February 6 or 7, when a neighbour, Mr. Shaw, spoke to him. The accused had a friend named Sidney Winslow, who lived in the neighbourhood, and accused moved to the Winslows' place early in February. He brought with him a fowling piece and a pea-rifle of .22 calibre and cartridges. At first he used to go back home once a day to milk the cows, but after a time ho stopped going there and said the cows had gone dry. In f*ct, he had sold them and kept the money. He made various explanations of the absence of hia father. Mrs. Render became anxious about not meeting . her father as usual and visited the house at Swanson, which she found locked, said Mr. Meredith. The accused was found to be spending money freely, and cashed cheques made out to his father. He claimed his father's authority to endorse them. A week before the body was discovered he sold 11 head of stock from the farm for £36 7s. His friend who went with him before this to milk the cows noticed something heaped up on a barrow covered with sacks and projecting over each end of it. House In Confusion On one occasion accused told his friend not to touch it, continued Mr. Meredith, That package must have been the body of the murdered man. Mrs. Pender and her husband got into the house and found everything in a state of disorder, as though it had been rifled. ' On account of what he had heard from his; son and young Winslow, a Mr'. Hammond had his suspicions aroused. He made a search and found bones and a skull sticking out from sacking under a heap of hay. He at once informed the police and they discovered the body of the deceased. Tw6 of deceased's daughters and a number of others arrived at the farm about this time, and Hammond was deputed to break .the news to them. When Con 7 stable Norton asked accused where his father was he did not speak for some moments, and then said, "I will tell you the truth. We had a row and I shot him with a pea-rifle." Afterward accused followed a warning given hiro to say no more.. Bullet Holes in Skull Mr. Meredith described how the body had been sown up in sacking blankets and a sheet with twine. It was dressed in a shirt and singlet. On the mattress and sacking pillow of the deceased, human blood had been found. In the deceased's skull there were two bullet holes right between the eyes, about three-quarters of an inch apart. The shooting had been exceedingly accurate and seemed to be the result of a steady aim on both occasions. The bullets found in the skull were of .22 calibre fired from a pea-rifle. ' "The wounds could not have been self-inflicted," said Mr. Meredith. "It is absolutely impossible for a person to shoot "himself dead with one bullet and then do it again." It was noteworthy that the bodv could not have shifted after the discharge of the first bullet until the second was fired into it. There were no marks about the house as there would have been if deceased had been shot standing and had fallen. . ' Manslaughter Defined The law was perfectly plain, Mr. Meredith .said, that before a charge of murder could be reduced to one of manslaughter '• it had to be shown that the act was done as a result of such provocation as would cause an ordinary person to lose his power of self-control, and the act must oe done before there had been time for the passion to cool and self-control to return. Mrs. Selina Winslow, widow, of Hetherington Road, Swanson, said the accused was a friend of her sons, and caine to sleep in a tent with some of them about the first week in February. Later he brought guns with him, and brought a motor-car. She saw him signing a cheque, and he said his father had told him to do so. Later he said he had had a letter from his father telling him to 6ell the dry stock. She prevented one of her boys from going to Rotorua for a week-end with accused in a rental car. She insisted on the accused taking away the guns he had brought, and she afterwards found .22 calibre cartridges in the washhouse.

In answer to Mr. Moody, witness said accused had two fingers bruised when he came to her. Ho was a quite good worker 011 the farm. Ho was very nervous and seemed to bo afraid of things. Ho used to sit and mope a lot, and did not have too happy a time on tho farm.

Mr. Moody: Would you say he appeared to bo a neglected boy? Witness: I should think so. A schoolboy, Sidney Keith Winslow, aged nearly 14, a Bon of tho previous witness, said .when accused came to them in February he said his father was at Waihi prospecting and would be away for a few weeks. Accused used to go back to his father's farm to milk the cows usually in the evening, and witness frequently went with him. There was a barrow there with something on it, under sacks, projecting over each end. Mr. Meredith: Did yon ever ask accused to do anything with the barrow ? Witness: Yes, 1 said "Can I have a ride?" What did he say?—No, don't touch it.

Witness said that one evening accused said ho would shift some hay while witness was milking. Witness did not see the barrow that night. Later accused told him he had sold the cows for £4O. He bought among other things clothes for himself, chocolates, a camera and camera goods, an air pistol and slugs. Injured Fingers

To Mr. Moody witness said accused had two finger nails off when he came to them in February. He always appeared frightened and nervous. Witness did not know of his being knocked about.

Answering His Honor, witness said accused told him he got the injury when his father was giving him a hiding and he put up his hand to ward off the blow. Sydney Arthur Henry Hammond, farmer, of Swanson, described finding the body under the hav, and tho breaking of the news to relatives. -He heard accused say to Constable Norton, "I shot- him with a pea-rifle." To Mr. Moody witness agreed that it was a matter of comment in the district the way Spensley senior made his son work on tho farm. The boy always appeared very obliging and looked after his father while he was ill.

His Honor: Did the father ever treat the boy harshly while you wore there?

Witness: No

Constable F. Pollard, of Henderson, described the uncovering of the body on March 13' and the dirty and disorderly condition of tho house. Witness told Mr. Moody he had heard in the district that the father and son did not got on too well together. Alleged Admission

Constable John Norton, of Henderson, who had been with Constable Pollard, gave similar evidence, and said accused had told him ho had shot his father with a pea-rifle. A near neighbour of deceased, Lewis CJiarles Sliatv, said he last saw deceased alive on February 6 or 7. His farm overlooked Spensley's farm. _ In cross-examination witness said accused was a well-mannered boy, but he appeared to bo nervous and highly strung. He did practically all the work on the farm. "I reckon he was overworked," said witness. Mr. Moody: I am instructed that the boy was frightened of his father? Witness: Yes, he was.

He almost lived in terror- of his father on occasions?— That is the way it appeared. Witness said he had seen the father chasing the boy about the farm and had seen him throw a lump of wood at him.

Mr. Moody: It is suggested that the boy was worked like a slave?— Yes, he was.

Witness said he often wondered why the boy did not leave. Pathologist's Evidence

Dr. Walter Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland Hospital, said he found two bullet holes in the forehead of the skull. One was just to the right of the middle line and the bullet had struck at right angles. The other was threequarters ef an inch above the first and just to the left of the middle line. Here also the bullet must have come from straight in front. Two bullets were found in the front of the skull. Either would have rendered a man unconscious, and a man could not have inflicted the wounds upon himself. He had found human blood stains on a sacking pillow, on an old newspaper, and on a mattress produced. A daughter of the deceased arid halfsister of accused, Mrs. Sarah Agnes lima Pender, said she lived at her father's house for some months in 1936 and t her father and accused were getting on very well then. The witness had not completed her evidence when the Court adjourned until this morning.