ACCUSED ACQUITTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26771, 14 May 1948, Page 6

ACCUSED ACQUITTED

WANGANUI MURDER TRIAL i JUDGE’S DIRECTION TO JURY P.A. WANGANUI, May 13. “ The accused’s statement does not convict her, so. where then do you get proof of her guilt? There is no other source, so she is entitled to an acquittal." So said Mr Justice Cornish summing up the evidence to-day in the cpse in which Mary Theresa Loo, a married woman, aged 26, was charged with the murder of her four-year-old daughter, Gale Kingi, at Ohakune on December 3 last. After hearing his Honor, the jury took eight minutes to return with a verdict of not guilty and the accused was discharged. The case arose as a result of the death of the child at Raetihi Hospital, where it had been admitted when in an unconscious state. An unsuccessful operation had been performed. The child was buried, the mother having advised that it had suffered an injury when falling backwards down steps when carrying a rocking horse from the house out into the yard. Later suspicions were aroused and the body was exhumed. Medical evidence was to the effect that there had been an indentation in the skull at the time of death, which doctors thought was more likely to have been caused by a blow or blows rather than from a fall. Dr P. P. Lynch, pathologist, of Wellington, however, who conducted a post-mortem examination after exhumation of the body, said that the indentation could have been a normal variation in the anatomy of the skull. The judge said that the police were justified in charging the accused and justices in committing her for trial, The Grand Jury also was justified in finding a trrie bill.