EVIDENCE COMPLETED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27386, 11 May 1950, Page 8

EVIDENCE COMPLETED

Brooks Murder Trial ACCUSED IN BOX PA AUCKLAND, May 10. Claiming that his sawn-off shotgun discharged accidentally as he went to accept a lift in Hodson’s car, Chesley Lachlan Brooks, aged 20, a seaman and labourer, gave evidence on the third day of his trial before Mr Justice Finlay and a jury. The accused is charged with murdering Stanley Frederick Hodson, bacteriologist at the Rangitaiki Dairy Company, at Onepu, near Te Teko, on the morning of February 13. Brooks was in the witness box giving his evidence in chief and being cross-examined for over four hours. A psychiatrist who examined accused was the only other witness called by the defence and after he had been heard, his Honor adjourned the trial to tomorrow. Concluding addresses to the jury by the defence and Crown counsel and his Honor’s summing up will be taken in the morning. Mr V. R. Meredith and Mr G. Speight are appearing for the Crown, Mr L. P. Leary, with him Mr R. K. Davison and Mr P. G. Hillyer, represent the. accused.

In evidence, Brooks said he saw a car coming from the direction of Rotorua. It stopped about 10 yards away, and he walked towards it. “As I walked around the door I started to take my pack off, and the shotgun went off,” he said. When the smoke cleared he put his hand on the driver's shoulder, and then saw a large wound in Hodson’s chest. “I got such a shock I did not at first believe I had hit Hodson,” said Brooks. Brooks told the court he did not know who his parents were. He was adopted by a Mr and Mrs Brooks. The former was a greengrocer who moved about Britain and the accused’s education was interrupted. He left home at 16 and trained for the merchant navy. After a number of voyages he reached New Zealand in May, 1948. The accused said he bought several weapons and shot rabbits, hares and birds. He bought a single barrelled shotgun and soon had an accident with the weapon. He was loading it and there was an explosion, breaking the stock. The weapon was then useless so he turned it into a sawn-off shotgun. He bought camping equipment for a holiday in the bush. When he heard that his boss was leaving the Hydro-electric Department, he decided to leave, too. He went to Onepu first because it was a convenient road junction. Describing what happened after the shooting, Brooks told the jury that when he looked in the car and saw the man dead, he realised that one day he would have to give an account. He thought the police would want to know how the gun came to be loaded and cocked. He drove Hodson's car to Taupo. He felt so depressed, he attempted twice to commit suicide. Once he used a rifle, but the mechanism was faulty and the second time he inhaled fumes from the exhaust of the car, but only lost consciousness for a period. He then disposed of the car. To Mr Meredith, the accused said he did not know the gun was loaded and cocked when he approached Hodson's car. He admitted he could have taken Hodson’s body to Te Teko or anywhere and told someone about the accident. Called by the defence, Dr Henry Meredith Buchanan, superintendent of the Avondale Mental Hospital, said he examined the accused at the Crown's request. “The accused said he suddently saw a vision of a man he disliked when he saw a face in the car and he shot at him. His condition shows no mental abnormality. If he had seen such a vision it would be indicative of mental disorder, but I could find, no such mental disorder and I therefore dismissed this supposed hallucination.”