WHEN A WOMAN LOVES

NZ Truth, Issue 1144, 3 November 1927, Page 3

WHEN A WOMAN LOVES

Young Actress, Ship's Engineer And A Hammer

HUSBAND SHE LEFT BEHIND

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.)

CHE was young — very young; she had married and gone to South Africa with her husband, but neither the glamor of her marriage nor that of the Dark Continent could hold her and she decided after a very few months to return to her parents m New Zealand.

IT was on the s.s. "Maheno" that Sophie Shepherd met Milroy Thomas Smillie, 23-year-old third engineer, ancl he felt his heart cords vibrate at sight of her young and buxom beauty. Sophie was not unwilling to have the attentions of Milroy bestowed upon her and the impressionable young engineer made his love for her his goal m life. Whether she told him that ahe had left a husband who did not understand her, or whether she passed herself off under her stage name — for she told Mr. Justice Reed m the Auckland Supreme Court that she was an actress and went under the name of Fione Shepherd for a time — is not clear, but the course of their

young love was not free from breakers and they drifted upon a lee shore. Finally, it was alleged, to impress his love upon her, iMilroy hit her on the head with a ihammer. It was on September 7 that the enamored young engineer was said to have made this striking impression on Sophie. Exactly seven weeks later he stood m the dock, charged with assault and intent to do grievous

bodily harm or alternatively with assault. Only 18 months ago did Sophie marry Thomas Shepherd, said she, when m the witness-box being questioned by Crown Prosecutor Hubble, and she had known Milroy Smillie for nine months. i Sophie is a rosy-cheeked, darkhaired young woman. She wore a straw hat from under which peeped two tufts of hair over her ears; she spoke scarcely above a whisper — which it was hard to believe was her normal voice _ aTK l displayed no embarrassment or lavished any glances upon her young admirer m the dock. Sophie said she did not intend returning to her husband; on the Friday before the hammer came into contact with her head she had told "Roy" not to see her any more. But that morning he had called, being up from the country, where he was working on a farm, having had a nervous breakdown. He was helping her mother to hang up some pictures and put up an overmantel. Sophie was m her room I—there1 — there was evidently a coolness between them — when "Roy" came m and asked her if. she had seen a hammer. She said: "I never use one." I "Had he a hammer m his hand?" asked Crown Prosecutor Hubble. "I don't remember," replied Sophie, "I remembered it at the time, but I've forgotten since." She went on to say that he was m a temper; what he said she did-not /tjuite

catch, but he waved his arms about. Then she received a blow on the head without any warning. "Was it a severe blow?" — *'I never even felt it." Then after a pause she added: "Not till afterwards. I had a hat on." His honor asked her if she fell. "I sank down — I think it was the shock," she said. "Afterwards he seemed terribly sorry." Questioned by the judge. Sophie replied that Smillie had a knife m his hand as well as a hammer. For the accused, Lawyer Hall Skelton asked the young woman if she had seen "Roy" hit out and was answered m the negative; she thought it was an

you were married?" — "Yes, he did." ; Medical evidence was given by two doctors as to the nature of the injuries, which comprised a cut on the head about an inch long and which could have been caused by the back of the hammer. Under cross-examination by counsel, Mrs. Violet Jones, Sophie's mother, stated that Smillie had been away some months and always before he had been a "perfect little gentleman." "Bid he make any suggestion that this was an accident?" asked his honor. "Oh, no," was the answer. Smillie, from the box, said his statement to the police was much abbreviated and did not put things m their proper light. "You were arguing with your hands?" asked his lawyer. "Yes," replied the young engineer. "I wondered why she didn't speak." "Did you intend to hurt the girl?" — "No, I did not, sir." Lawyer Hall Skelton was making some remarks as to Sophie's evidence when the judge remarked: 'It's wonderful what women will do!" "When m love," concluded the lawyer. Smillie swore he had not told Constable Moore that he was desperate. "I told the constable that I had no intent to kill," A very brief retirement of the jury resulted m their return to court with a verdict of not guilty. ' SmiUie was disoharged*

accident. "How do you account for his statement to the police that he was going to take his own life?" asked his honor. "I think he was out of his mind," declared Sophie. Possibly there was a little feminine pride m her voice when she told counsel: "When I got on to the ship Maheno he looked me up m the ship's ibook." "You are an actress, aren't you?" "Yes." "He didn't know