NOT GUILTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23089, 14 July 1938, Page 14

NOT GUILTY

GIRL ACQUITTED DEATH TREATMENT OF FAMILY ACTIONS BY DECEASED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (deceived July 13, 10.55 p.m.) ( PERTH, Jaly IS The trial took piace to-day of Eunice Mary Hornby, aged 18, charged with the murder of her father, "whom the Crown alleged she shot through the head as he sat in a chair in ,the kitchen of his home at Hester Siding on Julie 18. The jury returned a verdict of not. guiitv after lo minutes deliberation and the girl was discharged. At the inquest, evidence was given that Hornby had, for a long period, been violent' and cruel to members of hia family. The widow gave evidence at the inquest that deceased had threatened to kill her and had said he would torture her to death. ;At the trial Detective-Sergeant JacksOn said that members 6f the family had told him that Hornby had been kicking his wife and family when he Was wearing clogs, while a neighbouring farmer hud said that Hornby once kicked a cow to death. Explaining to the jury the circumstances of the crime, the girl said her father had a terrible temper. fi<> threatened' to "get mother." When she returned from ft neighbour's house. '*l decided I would shoot father rather than allow the other members of the family to do so. I obtained my brother's rifle. I saw father reading the paper in front of the radio. I came behind him, took [careful aim and fired. Father's head -dropped forward." ■

Whil6 Walter.Hornby, aged 51, was «tting in an'armchair reading a newspaper before the kitchen fire, on his dairy farm near Hester, 140 miles sOuth of Perth, On the afternoon df Jund 18, he was shot through the back of the head with a .22 rifle, and was killed instantly. _ .j. * At the inquest on June 22 at Bridgetown, evidence was given that for a long-period Hornby , had been violent ana Cruel to his wife and members of his family. His widow, Patience Hornby, stated that her daughter came to her after the shooting and Mid: "1 have shot daddy. Do not wry. All your troubles are Over. We "have had 18 years of misery." . Constable O'Brien said that Eunice jb&de a statement that her father f ttrfeatened to kill her mother, and that she could not stand it any longer, -ghe said she had frequently been assaulted by her father, who used his hoots, fists, and pieces of wood, and that he had threatened to murder Jhenibers of the family.