MAREO’S FATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22911, 19 June 1936, Page 14

MAREO’S FATE

MOVE FOR REPRIEVE NOT YET MADE COST OF THE TRIAL

MAJOR PART BORNE BY STATE

(Special to Daily Times)

AUCKLAND, June 18,

No action in the direction of securing a reprieve has yet been taken by counsel for Erie Mareo, aged 45, the musician who was sentenced to death by Mr Justice Callan in the Supreme Court on Wednesday night after he had been found guilty at a re-trial on a charge of murdering his wife, Thelma Clarice Mareo. The prisoner has not yet been interviewed by his counsel since the verdict was given. Senior counsel for the defence, Mr H. F. O’Leary, K.C., left for Wellington by train this afternoon. The names of Betty Marco and Graham Mareo have been pencilled in as passengers by a steamer which is to leave for London next Monday. On behalf of their relatives in England, Mr J. L. Conlan, of Auckland, is making the necessary arrangements, but it is not yet definite whether they will leave the country in July or later. Well-con-nected relatives have stated that an opportunity will be given to Graham Mareo to enter any profession he wishes, medicine, insurance and banking being among those mentioned. Although long and involved, the two trials of Mareo have not been expensive as murder trials are judged, and it is estimated that £IOOO would cover the coat to the Crown, which has borne both its own expenses and a great part of those of the defence. At the original trial the expenses of senior counsel for the defence were found privately, and those of the two junior counsel were paid by the State according to scale. At the second trial, however, the whole of the expenses of the defence, including those of bringing to Auckland witnesses from Australia and the country districts are being paid by the Crown, in addition to the fees of counsel, the expense of paying and accommodating the jury, and ordinary witnesses’ expenses. It is understood that both Betty and Grahani Mareo were paid 30a a week each by the Crown ponding the result of the second trial. A weekly sum was also paid to the principal Crown witness, Freda Stark, for a similar period. \\ itnesses’ expenses generally, however, have been comparatively low, as the majority arc Auckland residents and were required for ojijy one or two days.