MURDER ALLEGATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18235, 2 November 1933, Page 8

MURDER ALLEGATION

THE GREY LYNN TRAGEDY CONCLUSION OF EVIDENCE (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Evidence of medical men on the question of the prisoner’s sanity continued to occupy the court to-day, the fourth day of the trial of John Hubert Edwards on a charge of murder. Dr. Buchanan, superintendent of the Auckland Mental Hospital, was asked by Mr. Justice Herdman: “Did he strike you as being honest in his answers during your interviews- with him?” The witness: I did not think his statement that he could not remember certain things was honest. The judge: Would you certify to him being insane? The witness: No. Dr. G. M. Tothill endorsed Dr. Buchanan’s opinion. He said he thought the accused was neurasthenic. Emotional instability was one of the symptoms of neurasthenia, and people so suffering were quicker to fly into passion than normal people. Witness had no reason to believe that at the time of the killing the accused did not know what ho was doing. The witness thought his acts were conscious acts. Cross-examined, he said that if it was proved that the accused had suffered from hallucinations and delusions, he would have to alter his opinion. Dr. Gribbin and Dr. Tews ley, medical officer to the Auckland prison, both said they considered that the accused knew what he was doing. This concluded the evidence, and counsel began to address the jury.