IN TROUBLE

NZ Truth, Issue 755, 6 December 1919, Page 8

IN TROUBLE

Ayah Alley and Gertrude Martin

Before the Court

THE LETTERS TO THE SERGEANT OF POLICE AT BLENHEIM

Committed for Trial on a Serious Charge.

The Lower Court prooeedlng-s m the case against Gertrude Martin and Ayah Alley, charged with conspiring to procure the miscarriage of Esther Louisa White, were concluded m the Wellington Magistrate's Court on Friday afternoon of last week. ,It will be remembered that at thfe previous hearing- the woman White mad© a confession that an illegal operation had been performed upon her by Alley, at the latter's house m Ar-lington-street. Evidence was also given that a letter alleged to have been written by Martin, describing what had happened, had been sent to the Sergt. of Police at Blenheim, and. that later an attempt was made to BURGLE A POST OFFICE LETTER BOX, for the ostensible purpose of getting ' this incriminating letter back. This purpose was not effected, and another letter was sent to the Sergeant of Police, alleging that the contents of the first -were untrue, and had been written m "dirty spite." j These letters were as follows: To Sergeant of Police, Blenheim. Dear Sir, — Would you kindly inform a certain young- man m Blenheim, whose name I do not know, but you will soon get his name from a solicitor m that town, that n Miss Simmons^ otherwise Mrs. White, did receive from that person a sum of one hundred and twenty- five pounds for the adoption of an infant when born, now the woman has come to Wellington and had a legal operation performed at five and a-halt' months and is at present m the house where the operation was performed, at 7 Arlington-street, the party goes by the name of Nurse John. — Gertie Martin. To Sergeant of Police, Blenheim. Dear Sir, — Please take no notice whatever of the letter already posted to you as it was ONLY DIRTY SPITE OF MINE, and there is no truth m it whatever. I remain yours truly, GERTIE MARTIN. Detective- Sergt Cullen, of Auckland, stated that he interviewed accused Martin at Swanson, Auckland, and took down a statement from her as follows "I am a domestic, and reside with my mother at Swanson. I am 27 years of age. 1 know a woman named MissSimmons us Mrs. White. 1 lirst met her at the Criterion Hotel, Blenheim, m March, 191G, and she then said she was pregnant and had received £125 for the adoption of the child when it was born. She then said she would go to Wellington to get an operation performed on her, and mentioned a certain place which I now forget. I suggested to her to go to Mrs. Alley's, better known as Nurse Johrij as I knew she had done these operations before. On Mrs. White's suggestion I wrote to Mrs. Alley asking if she could put Mrs. White up for a fortnight, and to reply by wire. N>xt day I received a wire from Mrs. Alley stating that she ■would expect Mrs. White. About six weeks later I went to Mrs. Alley's house, and there were two other women there. One was a Mrs. McCarthy, and the other one I do not know her name Mrs. White seemed surprised at seeing me at Mrs. Alley's, and Mrs. Alley spoke to me, but was very cool. I told Mrs. McCarthy that Mrs. White had come there for an illegal' operation. Mrs. McCarthy said she already knew about it, and suggested that I should write to the police. I did so and posted the letter m a letter box near the G.P.O. I then went down to join the s.s. Mararoa for Lyttelton. Mrs. Alley and Mrs. McCarthy came to see me, and Mrs. Alley said she could not find Mrs. White, and thought she j had gone out of her mind. I then told I her that I had posted the letter, and she asked me to come with them to the post office AND GET THE LETTER STOPPED. Mrs. Alley spoke to one of the postal officials, and Mrs. McCarthy spoke to the postmaster through a slot telephine. 1 did not speak myself, and do not know any of the conversation. I then went back to the boat, and Mrs. Alley got me to write the attached letter m pencil for the police to take no action m the matter. . . I do not know anything about the letter box being tampered with. This must have been done by Mrs. Alley or Mrs. McCarthy when they posted the letter." Detective-Sergt. Lewis said that he called at Mrs. Alley's house, at 7 Arlington-street, and interviewed her. She denied that any illegal operation had taken place on Mrs. White, otherwise known as Miss Simmons. After the conclusion of the evidence for the prosecution, Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell, on behalf of Martin, submitted that the police had failed to bring sufficient evidence to send, her for trial. The charge against her was one of conspiracy, and to sustain a charge of this nature there must be evidence of an agreement between the conspirators. It could not be conspiracy for a person to merely point out a place where a crime could be committed. Any arrangements that had been made were solely between accused Alley and White. Martin was neither offered inducement nor reward, and there was not a particle of evidence to show that she asked Alley to procure a miscarriage. All Martin did was to write to Alley asking her to put White up. The admissions of White did not weigh against Martin, and she should thereCore be acquitted forthwith. Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., said the evidence against Martin was admittedly not strong, but he thought a prirrui facie case had been made out, although a weak one, Martin would have to go to the Supreme Court. Both accused pleaded not euilty, and were committed to the Supreme Court for trial, bail being allowed.