SUPREME COURT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7777, 22 January 1887, Page 3

SUPREME COURT.

V CRIMINAL SESSIONS. VFbiday, January 21. (Before his Honor Mr Justice Williams.) The sitting of the. criminal sessions of the Supreme Court was 'resumed at 10 o'clock. *.- "tSb GKAirt) jonr. The: following gentlemen comprised the grand jury :-r-Messrs George M. Barr (foreman), William G.VN.eill, John W. Paulin, George Edmund Dermer, Maurice Joel, John Hislop, John-Gillies, James Durston, France Arthur Cutten, Thomas Cullen, Henry Crust, Daniel Catchpole, Duncan, Campbell, John Brown, George Blyth, Charles Frederick Black, ahd David Baxter. ; THE TfIIARU MURDER CASE. ;' HIS honor's charge. fils fionor delivered the following charge to the grand juryi^— ; ;- .'■ Mr' Foreman/and gentlemen of the grand • jury;-^-I have asked you to come together again to consider, a cliarge of murder. Ido not propose to discuss"the evidence at any length; I' shall confine myself to pointing out the salient features of the casei made against the accused by the depositions. The accused Thomas Hall is charged with the wilful murder of Henry Cain. Henry Caih' died; on-the 29th January 1886. He had been ill some time before from dropsy and kidney disease. The doctors certify that he died from that cause. At the time of his death there'^was no suspicion of any foul play. Some-months after, his .death suspicions arose, and the body-was. exhumed. In it was found antimony in a Quantity sufficient in itself, according .:, to the.; medical testimony, to have accelerated death in a person in the weak condltioiin which Cain shortly before his death was. 3SW antimony is not naturally found in the.human body, and is not a product of dedom* tjpsitiohV If takenj as it must have been, by ■^inlnllislifetimej how was it administeffe'd? His iHedical man jDr -- Macintyre, kad on various occasions prescribfed for hiih, biit Antimony ne^et entered into any of/ those prescriptions. To •coouht, therefore/'fbr its presence: there can be butihree .hypotheses:-*' Firstly, that it was taken or administered by pure accident; secondly, that it was wilfully taken by Cain; and thirdly, that Ut,Vwas wilfully.adininistered by someone else. You have to consider which of these the evidence shows as. most* probable. The evidence further shows some 'grounds for supposing that more antimony was administered than was actually found in the body after death. During the latter, part of his life Cain suffered from constant vomiting: a symptom, indeed, of his disease, but also a characteristic symptom of antimonial poisoning. He seems to have specially complained that whisky, which he had been •in the habit "of taking for. many years, caused him to vomit; • Two witnesses who took liquorin CaiVs house speak of being sick immediately, after, but,Von the other hand, other witnesses .who also, took liquor suffered no ill effects.- The niedical .testimony does not seem to have been very fully brought out at the preliminary inquiry, and possibly from the quantity of antimony found'in the body, and from the aprance of the. different organs, the docorsmay able to draw some further inferences material-to the case. The accused Hall had ffiarried the stepdaughter of the deceased in May_llßßs.-;'.The deceased objected to the marriage, ahd Hall and he were not at thit time on friendly terms. About three months before Cain's decease, however, these differences were made upj and Hall became a daily visitor at the house, calling morning and evening and often being with the deceased alone. Ifc is suggested that the Vomiting commenced, or 'at any rate became' regular, shortly after the time ' Hall's visits commenced. In May 1885-Hall \ had purchased attimohyand also a work on .' poisons,, which he appears to have bought especially to ascertain the operation of this particular drug. r The book contains the date "1882" in Hallos handwriting, suggesting that ■ he then had it in his possession—a suggestion i which, was of course untrue. In August 1886 HaU was arrested on another charge-ra charge of attempting to poison by antimony—-and anti- i mony was then .found, in his possession. He ■ then admitted that he had purchased antimony and stated that he had used it for a long time' for cigarettes for asthma. For some time before Cain's death Hall had been in great financial difficulties, and had resorted to forgery to alleviate these difficulties. In several ways Cam's death ' would have .been a direct or indirect pecuniary benefit to Halli Cain's family consisted of two ' step-daughters, Mrs Hall and Mrs Newton There is nothing to show that Hall knew how ' Cain had disposed of his property by his will but as a matter of fact the will, as might have* been, anticipated, gave the property between these two daughters.- The value of Mrs Hall's share was about £250. There were also two deeds of settlement under which Mrs HaU had an interest..,;As to one of them, Mrs HaU and Mrs Newtonyher sister; had an equal interest in the income of, the fund. By a deed dated in December 1885 Mrs Hall and Mrs Newton had granted to Cain a life annuity of £300 a year and the use for Ufe of the house where he resided and the grounds attached. By Cain's death half of this annuity and half the rental of the house would fall back to Mrs Hall. As to the other settlement, it was made by Mrs HaU, then Miss Espie, of her property apparently a considerable time before she married HaU. By that settlementshehad put the corpus of her property out of her reach, and had vested it in Cain and MrLe Cren upon trusts to pay her the income for her: separate use. This settlement Hall wished to cancel.and suggested to LeCren a friendly suit for.that purpose which shonld be undefended by the trustees. Mr Le Cren had no objection to these proceedings, but Mr Cain always objected to destroying the trust. Two days before Cain's death a suit was commenced by Hall on Mrs HaU'sbehalf, and in the foUowing April Mr Le Cren; paid HaU over £700, the amount of the trust, moneys t in hand; Cain's death, therefore, would apparently get rid of the obstacle in Hall's way to obtaining this money. The ca»3, therefore, as disclosed by the depositions, is shortly this: Cain's death was ; accelerated by antimony. The hypothesis of its accidental administration or its having been wilfuUy taken by Cain is improbable. HaU had constant access to Gain. Hall had antimony;in his possession, and had studied the subject of antimonial poison. HaU was urgently in want of' money, and g^ig a^fa would help to get him money. If you think three is prima facie evidence that Cain's death was accelerated^ even in the smallest degree, by antimony wilfuUy administered by Hall, you should findi, true biU. Gentlemen, if you will retire to your room the biU will be laid before you. The grand jury retired at 20 minutes past 10 o'clock, and after deliberating for two hours and 30 minutes returned a true biU. -..-■• -

The court was then adjourned until 10 o'clock on Monday.next. ■'*:■."

A Good Account.—" To sum it up, six long years of bedridden sickness and suffering, costing £40 per year, total £240, all of which was stopped by three bottles of American Co.'s Hop Bitters taken by my wife, who has done her own housework for a year since without the loss of a day, and I want everyb 'dv to know it for their benefit."—John Weeks. Butler. Find.' . th

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