THE MAREO CASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22908, 16 June 1936, Page 10

THE MAREO CASE

CHARGE OF WIFE MURDER

EVIDENCE FOR THE DEFENCE

(Peh United Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 15. There was keen public interest when Marco's retrial entered upon the third week this morning. Ernest William Giesen, medical practitioner, of Wellington, gave evidence that, in the course of practice he had acquired knowledge of the barbituric group of drugs. He had experienced one ease of veronal poisoning in which 250 grains had been taken. He was familiar with the circumstances of the Marco case. After Mareo was committed for trial from the lower court he had read all the depositions, and had advised the defence from time to time before the first trial. During the last few days he had perused the evidence of several of the principal witnesses. " I am still of the same opinion now as I was in January," said the witness. " I have studied the literature on the barbiturics and veronal. Generally, I would accept the statements of Dr Gilmour relating to the average medicinal dose and the average fatal dose. Usually veronal is taken to induce sleep, but occasionally it is taken by people during the day, although not prescribed like that by medical men. It would be taken by highly nervous, excitable people to calm them, but for such cases a bromide is usually prescribed." Witness added that it could be said that Mrs Mareo was likely to be susceptible to drugs in view of what had been said regarding her temperament. The published literature showed that people who took veronal automatically would take whatever was available. There was nothing striking about the evidence that she had taken not less than 100 grains. No inference could be drawn from the amount of veronal extracted after death from the various organs. The literature stated that the amount taken could be guessed at, but not determined. In none of the reported cases was he able to And a suggestion as to how an estimate could be formed. Dr Giesen said he did not think the factors on which the Crown medical witnesses relied for their statement that Mrs Mareo had a dose of 100 grains of veronal were sufficient, adequate or reliable. The fact that 100 grains or more was a fatal dose did not help to estimate how much Mrs Mareo had. Referring to the nightdress and kimono which had been removed from Mrs Mareo before Dr Dreadon's arrival, witness said it was known that there must have been veronal in those garments. "Wc have one positive finding —the amount of veronal the analyst actually found and weighed—and one finding which is unknown —the quantity in the garments sent to the analyst which he was never able to recover," said Dr Giesen. "If Mrs Mareo had taken at least 50 grains, more than half of which would still be in her body, on Saturday night, thero would be 71 grains or more in the body.

"We cannot account for about oneeighth of what must have been in the body on the basis or the evidence for the prosecution," said witness. If Mrs Mareo had undissolved veronal in her stomach on Saturday night, the effect of taking water, sal volatile and water, and hot milk would be to start the digestive processes which had been arrested and would assist the solution of undissolved veronal, tending to promote its ready absorption into the blood. Witness said the statement that a person once under a coma from veronal and rousing would not relapse except after the administration of a further dose was not supported by reported cases. Witness believed that Mrs Mareo had veronal on Friday night. It would be difficult to give veronal to an adult in full possession of his or her faculties without that person knowing that something was being given. Assuming that the evidence of the Australian witness, Whitington, established that Mrs Mareo knew the taste of veronal she would undoubtedly have been aware of what she was taking or getting. Witness believed she had veronal on the Saturday morning because without it she would not have remained asleep until late on Saturday evening. When she was found alongside the dressing table on Saturday morning it was consistent with her seeking veronal and witness considered it a case of automatism. It did not follow that she took veronal at 8 o'clock. She might have got back to bed and got theveronal later. The time she lived after the Saturday morning until her death was consistent with her having taken a lethal dose that morning.

The cross-examination of Dr Giesen by Mr Meredith began when the court resumed in the afternoon. Witness said he had not been in general practice for a good many years, but he had continued as a consulting physician. For the last few years his attention had been mainly confined to acting for insurance companies in life, sickness and accident cases.

Mr Meredith: I understand you substantially disagree with the conclusions of Drs Gilmour, Gunson and Ludbrook?

Witness: Yes,

Do you understand that Mrs Mareo is dead? Do you agree with them in that?—Yes.

You could put veronal in the medicine Mrs Mareo was taking just before her death, and you could not tell there was veronal in it?—Yes. The mixture and veronal both taste bitter?—Yes.

After a long series of questions Dr Giesen admitted that, if Mrs Mareo took veronal while standing at the dressingtable on the Saturday morning, the veronal must have been in the bedroom, and if it was there Mareo and Graham would have seen it. There was no place in the evidence suggesting that veronal was found in the bedroom. The cross-examiiiatio-> was not completed when the court adjourned till to-morrow.