BOYS CHARGED WITH MURDER

Southland Times, Issue 17736, 14 August 1917, Page 5

BOYS CHARGED WITH MURDER

CHARGES REDUCED TO MANSLAUGHTER. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, August 13. In his charge to the Grand Jury the Chief Justice referred to the charge of murder against two boys, Ernest Claude Gibbons, and Richard Ruihana, in connection with the death of the little girl, Irene Ellen Quinn, aged six, who was drowned on June 19th at Kirikiri, near Thames, it being alleged that one or both of the boys forced her into the stream. His Honour said the law provided that where the offender was under seven he was incapable of committing a crime. In the case before the jury one of the children was seven years and four days old when the girl was found in the river, so that had the death occurred five days earlier he would not have been charged with the crime. The law also provided that in cases where the offender is between seven and fourteen, the onus is on the Crown to show that the offender knew this act was wrong. This aspect of the case would apply to the Maori boy, who was not yet nine. Personally he was not aware that there was anything to lead the jury to the conclusion that the Maori boy was conscious of wrong. The Grand Jury reduced the charges to manslaughter.