PONSONBY MURDER TRIAL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12063, 27 May 1920, Page 8

PONSONBY MURDER TRIAL.

FINGER-PRINT EVIDENCE, Per Press Association. Auckland, May 26

The trial of Dennis Gunn, charged with murdering A E Braithwaite, postmaster at Ponsonby on March 13th last, was continued to-day when further evidence tor the Grown was As already stated by counsel for the Grown the case for the prosecution depends largely upon fingerprint evidence. Among the witnesses to-day was Edmund Walter Dinnie, senior-sergeant in charge of the criminal registration branch at Wellington. He stated in answer to Mr Martin that he had 17 years’ experience of finger-print registration, and had received part of his training at New Scotland Yard, London. Mr Martin : So far as your knowledge and experience go, have yon ever found or heard of two prints of similar finger®, that is the first, second, third or any other fingers of any person being identical, and no two prl its of different fingers or any combination of them. So far as,your study and experience go is it not a fact that the fingers of persons in the absence of physical injury retain their characteristics from childhood to old age ? , .. . Mr Reed: I must object to that question, because the science, if it can be called a science, of finger-print identification, is of comparatively recent origin. I suppose that It does not date back more than 20 years, and 20 years does not cover an ordinary span of human life. It may be only a theory that there is no variation. It may be shown Shat in the case of certain persons it is so, but how can the witness say that there is no variation ? Mr Martin : I have asked him to say so far as his experience goes Mr Reed : Neither his knowledge nor his experience can cover a lifetime. In the last 10 or 12 years finger prints nave been more carefully studied thau they were before. Mr Tole remarked that it was at any rate a fact fi -at the finger markings persisted after death until decomposition of the skin. His Honor: I don’t know whether anyone has tried to take fingerprints of Queen Cleopatra, but her mummy with the hand protruding from the wrappings maybe seen in the Vatican museum. Mr Martin : I don’t know Queen Uleopatra, your Honor, but it is a fact that fingerprints have been taken from mummies. Witness, resuming, said he had taken prints Irom the .-ame person at an interval of 15 years, and there was no difference in the characteiistics of the two sets of prints. Dealing with the marks on the first cashbox witness said that on the top of the box a rather poor print of the right middle finger of the deceased was found. He also found a print of portion of a palm inside the lid in a position corresponding with the palm print on top. He round an exceptionally clean print of accused’s left ring finger on one of the sides. He found a print of accused’s right ring finger, together with a print of the finger of the late Mr Braithwaite. Other prints identified as Mr Braithwaito’s were found on various parts of the box and tray. Witness detailed all and named the fingers. Detective-Sergeant Dinnie was in the witness box when the court adjourned. In farther evidence he said that one of the revolvers found subsequent to the murder contained a finger print on the chamber which was similar to the finger print of the left middle finger of the accused. Auckland, May 27

At the trial of Dennis Gunn, charged with "mdrder and robbery, Inpsector Fowler stated that he was in charge of the Finger Print Bureau of the New South Wales police for seventeen years and for some time in the same work at Scotland Yard. His own bureau had 70,000 sets of prints (ten fingers each) and Scotland Yard had about 250,000 sets. In all his experience he had never seen two sets of prints alike nn less they were made by the same person. From the finger prints submitted to him in the present case he picked ,“a half print of one finger out of 1010 prints recorded on 101 different forms. The different forms were made bj' 101 different people and the forms were unmarked in any way. He said: “I am more convinced that Gunn handled the revolver and the cash bos than if I had actual sight of him making them.”