MURDER OF CHINESE CHILD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22809, 19 February 1936, Page 8

MURDER OF CHINESE CHILD

YOUNG MOTHER CHARGED VERDICT OF NOT GUILTY ACCUSED FOUND TO BE INSANE (Per United Press Association) HAMILTON, February 18. A verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity was returned by the jury in the Supreme Court at Hamilton to-day in the case in which Oliver May Kung, a young Chinese woman, aged 27, was charged with murdering her two months' old child at Taumarunui on December 2. Mr Justice Callan presided. The Crown Prosecutor stated that it would be shown the woman was suffering from delusions, one of which was that her husband was being forced to marry a white woman. The accused came to New Zealand four years ago with her husband and the husband later secured a position at Taumarunui where the couple lived apparently happily. They left f two children in China. A third child was born in 1933 and the last one last year. While the household was downstairs at a meal a noise was heard, and the accused descended the stairs. It was found that the infant's head had been almost severed by a chopper m an upstairs room. The Crown admitted at once that the accused was insane at the time she took the life of her child. After evidence had been given by several Chinese indicating that the accused was suffering from delusions and had acted in a strange way on several occasions, Dr H. M. Buchanan, superintendent of the Avondale Mental Hospital, testified that he had examined her on three occasions. She had failed to understand the seriousness of her position and she had no reluctance in admitting that she had killed her child, and she attempted to justify it as the only means of preventing her husband marrving a white woman. Witness considered "that she was definitely insane. A similar opinion was given by Dr St. L. H. Gribben, of Hamilton. Without leaving the court the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on the grounds of insanity. His Honor ordered that the accused be kept in strict custody in a mental hospital.