PICTON TRAGEDY
ACCUSED COMMITTED FOR TRIAL RELEASED ON BAIL PA BLENHEIM, Mar. 23. Albert Ensor Thompson, 43, a cook, was committed for trial at the next Blenheim sessions of the Supreme Court at the conclusion to-day of the lower court hearing of a charge of manslaughter. Bail was granted in the sum of £SOO with a surety for a like amount. The case arises out of the death of Caroline Jones, aged 57, after a knife wound in the abdomen received in the kitchen of the Terminus Hotel Picton, on January 22. Thompson and the deceased were employed as cook and chef respectively at the hotel.. In the course of evidence by 23 Crown witnesses, two married daughters of the deceased, who agreed that the accused and the deceased were, living together for about 10 years, gave evidence of continual and violent quarrels between them. Another woman who was working at the Lake Te Anau Hotel with Thompson and Jones said that their quarrels finally caused her to leave the job. Constable Magee stated that when he interviewed the accused some hours after the deceased received the wound, Thompson, who appeared highly strung and recovering from a drinking bout, said: “ I loved her. If she dies, you can have me for murder." The Magistrate, Mr Maunsell, committed the accused for trial.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 27038, 24 March 1949, Page 7
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221PICTON TRAGEDY Otago Daily Times, Issue 27038, 24 March 1949, Page 7
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