KAIPAKI MURDER CASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21357, 10 June 1931, Page 7

KAIPAKI MURDER CASE

. TRIAL OF THOMAS QUESTION OF PRISONER’S MENTALITY (Peb United Pbess Association.) HAMILTON, June 9. In the ■ Supreme Court the trial of Reginald Norman Thomas Rickards , for the alleged murder of Arthur .Rossiter, aged 72, at Kaipaki, on April 10, was continued to-day before-Mr Justice Herdman. Medical evidence, which did not agree on the prisoner’s mental condition, occupied the major portion of the day. Per the defence, Mr J. J. Sullivan said it was impossible for him to deny that the prisoner shot Rossiter. He put > forward the legitimate legal defence, however, that at the time the accused fired the shot he was sufficiently insane .to render him incapable of, understanding fully the nature or quality of the act. Medical evidence would be called to show that the prisoner was an epileptic. The man had made numerous statements to doctors and others. Through them all ran the same story. It went to show that he was born at Dawson City, Alaska, 37 years ago. He went to the war with the Canadian forces, and was badly wounded in France. One of the wounds was in the neck. He was definitely suffering from epilepsy, and ’while in custody awaiting his trial, he had actually been seized with an epileptic fit. The medical evidence j would show, that, the prisoner was suffering from sinusitis,, a disease affecting the tissues and cavities at the back of tbe ; nose. It was a disease which definitely led to insanity. Counsel said that the present was the first case he knew of in New Zealand during the past 30 years that actual disease of the brain had been advanced as a defence in a criminal prosecution. Mr Sullivan referred to other well-known murder trials, including those of Lionel Terry, Dr Cook, and Higgins, the Waikino murderer, in which it was proved that the accused had suffered from hallucinations, under the impression they were being persecuted. In the present case it was .submitted that the prisoner suffered from mental disease. Behind the nose was a fine tissue through which passed a senes of nerves. An X-ray photograph of, the prisoner’s head showed that this tissue and the cavities behind it, known as sinuses, were all diseased, that in ■ consequence of this diseased condition his brain was likely to be affected and that it might rentier him unaccountable for his actions. Mr Sullivan went on to review the evidence and traced into the prisoner’s conduct oyer a, period of, years strangeness of action, irresponsibility, moodiness, and an absence of appreciation of his acts. He quoted cases where epileptics : had i committed , assaults '■ about '’which, - when they became normal, again, they knew nothing. The assault on Miea Rossiter with a spanner, Mr Sullivan said, was a typical act of an epileptic. Counsel held that Rickards’s mental condition was such that he was incapable of appreciating the nature and. quality of his act. • ■