MANSLAUGHTER CASES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3613, 12 June 1923, Page 48

MANSLAUGHTER CASES.

GREYMOUTH, June 6. Charles Michael Doyle, fireman on the steamer Rait-una, was committed for trial on a charge of the manslaughter of William Henry Simpson, who died at the Greymouth Hospital following on injuries alleged to have been received in a scuffle on boaid the Kahuna on April 2 Bail was allowed m £SOO.

TWO MEN FOUND GUILTY. BLENHEIM, June 6. After a trial extending over two days of Richard Arthur Thomas Hollis and Thomas Whiston \ iggars, on charges arising out of the recent death of Rita Violet Eilen Nicoll, a young woman, who died at the Wairau Hospital after the effects of an illegal operation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty against both the accused, with a recommendation to leniency in the case of \ iggars. Hollis, who has had a previous conviction for a similar offence, was sentenced to seven years’ hard labour, and \ iggars to 18 months’ bard labour. The two accused were committed from the lower court on a charge of murder, but the Jury threw out the bill, and returned a bill charging the accused with manslaugh ter.

Sir John Salmond said that he could not accept the plea of Viggars’s counsel for probation, but must impose imprisonment as a salutary warning to young men. However, he perfectly agreed with the recommendation of the jury towards leniency, and thought that 18 months would meet the CiISC.