MURDER CHARGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24894, 16 May 1944, Page 6

MURDER CHARGE

DEATH OF WOMAN HUSBAND ON TRIA?. TRAGEDY AT OTAHUHU The trial of Thomas Phillip Haworth, aged 32, a foreman chrome tanner, on a° charge of murdering his wife, Patricia Florence Haworth, at Otahuhu, on March 16, was commenced before Mr. Justice Callan and a jury yesterday. Mr. V. R. Meredith and Mr. E. 0. Williams appeared for the Crown and Mr. J. Terry represented accused. In outlining the Crown case, Mr. Meredith said it appeared that accused and his wife had met an American soldier at a party late in February and the American had become a frequent visitor to their home. On the 1 riday prior to the tragedy he had gone to the Haworths' home and stayed there until the Sunday morning. Apparently some degree of affection had arisen between Mrs. Haworth and the American. On the Friday night she had said that she and the American were fond of each other, and there had been some discussion about it.

Talk of Divorces On the Saturday accused had virtually been told that his wife and the American had arranged to get married when the American got a divorce from his wife. Accused was understood to say that lie would give her a divorce one month after the American got his. This discussion had proceeded all night and until 5.30 on the Sunday morning. The American had then slept on a 'couch until about 8 a.m. when accused i had wakened him as he was due back | in camp. Mrs. Haworth apparently had : heard him going and had gone out to the gate and asked him not to go. On the following Wednesday the ; American came back to the house in I the afternoon and had met Mrs. | Haworth that night in Otahuhu. He 'had brought her back about 11 p.m., but had not gone into the house. On the Thursday morning, March 10, accused had left his work about 10 a.m. A woman living next door to the Haworths would say that she heard a commotion in the bedroom facing her ! kitchen and accused's voice calling: : "You do not love me any more. It's all an." Then she heard noises and Mrs. j Haworth screaming for help. Going across the road tTie woman asked a neighbour to go for the police. On coming back everything was quiet and she i saw accused leave the house and ride : away on his bicycle. She then went and ! looked through the bedroom window and isaw Mrs. Haworth lying on the floor, 1 her faco and arms covered with blood.

Finding of Woman j The police arrived and found Mrs. ' Haworth lying in a pool of blood, her | skull having apparently been battered I in. Evidence would be give of 13 separ- ; ate fractures. She was still .breathing | and received medical attention, but died , in an ambulance on the way to hosj pital, A bloodstained double-headed S hammer was found on the floor. Evidence would be given that accused , had .gone to a hotel, where he told ; the licensee that he had killed his wife. Detective McLean had seen accused at the hotel and asked him what was , wrong, accused replying: "A ■ — Yank." When charged with the murder of his wife accused had made a statement in which he said "the Yank" was the cause of it all. He said his wife had been out with "the Yank" and would not tell him where she had been. ,He stated that she had said "the Yank had taken her," and accused then | said: "You know what that means." j Accused said he had a hazy recollection I of getting the hammer, going home and ] hitting his wife. Manslaughter Aspect

Mr. Meredith said that the only legal ground on which a charge of murder could be reduced to manslaughter was provocation of such a nature as would cause a person to lose his self-control and act on it suddenly before his passion had time to cool. A person could not nurse a grievance and then act upon it at a later stage. Stephen Christopher Arlington, an employee at Lee and Arlington's tannery. said he saw accused at work shortly after seven o'clock morning, March 16. About 9.50 a.m. he saw accused cycling toward Luke Road. Replying to Mr. Terry, witness said accused had left work about 9.15 a.m. on the previous Monday. He had not returned to work again that day. He was definitely in a very distressed mental condition.

Neighbour's Evidence Mrs. Ethel May Massey described hearing the Haworths' front door slam on the Thursday morning and heavy, quick footsteps followed oy a commotion. "I heard accused say 'lf you do not lore me it's all up,'" and then a commotion and a yoice which I recognised as Mrs. Haworth's screaming for help," said witness. After telling a neighbour witness returned to her front lawn and while there saw accused ride off on his bicycle toward Otahuhu. Mrs. Florence Lawrence said that on tiiat morning about 10.15 accused came to her house and said: "Pat has gone; will you get Philip and take him to my mother's?" When she asked accused whGre Pat had gone he replied: "She's just gone." Witness said Philip was the Haworths' boy aged about seven years. Accused then rode away on his bicycle. Accused Visits Hotel The licensee of the Star Hotel, Otahuhu. Charles Claude Nicholson, said that between 10.20 and 10.40 a.m. on Thursday, March 16, he noticed accused in the bar and witness said: "Hullo, Tommy,, having a day off? Not feeling too well to-day." , "He beckoned me over and said, 'Something dreadful has happened,' " continued witness. "When I asked him what was wrong he said: 'l've killed my wife.'

"Accused looked to me like a man on the verge of collapse. I did not believe him and thought he had gone off his head. I asked him how he had killed his wife and he said: 'I killed her with a hammer. She was rotten to the core; she was no good.' " The hearing was adjourned until this morning.

YOUTH AND THE FUTURE ADDRESS TO ROTARIANS * Sons and daughters of members were present *at yesterdav's luncheon meeting of the Auckland Rotary Club and were welcomed by the president, Mr. A. K. North. The speaker was Mr. E. M. Blaiklock, senior lecturer in classics at Auckland University College, who dealt with the subject, "Youth and the Future." Using the story of "Gideon's commando as an allegory to illustrate his theme, Mr. Blaiklock dealt with the armaments of peace, the moral qualities essential for the continuation of victory in war. He diagnosed the low condition of a nation under four heads. The loss of willpower and virility, intellectual poverty, the decline of tolerance and growing materialism had always in the past marked the decline of a nation. He found such signs too widespread to-day and suggested that the next generation had a tremendous task in moral reconstruction. He failed to see in mere youth any competence to deal with it. The German armies had shown as truly as the hosts of Mahomet what misdirected enthusiasm could do. Youth's dynamic qualities needed a guide and a faith, and the only tried faith was the Christian faith.