PRANK OF FATE
CAR DRIVER ACQUITTED KNOCKED DOWN NEXT DAY (From Oub Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, July 11. Acquitted on Friday on a charge of the manslaughter of an aged woman, Ernest Ferguson Stephens, 32, was injured in a car accident similar to that in which the woman was. “You’d almost think it was fate,” he said, as he lay in his hospital bed. On Friday Mr Justice Curlewis directed a quarter sessions jury to acquite Stephens on a charge of feloniously slaying Mrs Ada Australia Hawton, 79. at North Sydney on April 28. Mrs Hawton was knocked down by a car driven by Stephens a'nd died. On Saturday Stephens was returning to his parents’ home at Manly by bus about 7 p.m. He alighted from the bus and was struck by a car. He was taken to hospital with a fractured left leg. “ I was struck by the off-side of a car’s front bumper bar—exactly the same way as Mrs Hawton was,” Stephens said. “Before her accident I had never been in a car accident before, and now this happens.”
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19390720.2.148
Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 23865, 20 July 1939, Page 17
Word Count
180PRANK OF FATE Otago Daily Times, Issue 23865, 20 July 1939, Page 17
Using This Item
Allied Press Ltd is the copyright owner for the Otago Daily Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Allied Press Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in