SERIOUS CHARGE

Southland Times, Issue 19771, 20 February 1923, Page 6

SERIOUS CHARGE

A GISBORNE CASE. (Per United Press Association). GISBORNE, February 19. After several adjournments, owing to illness of the principal witness, charges against Frances Quinn, a married woman, 30 years of age, and Albert Ernest Harris, 41 years of age, of having unlawfully used an instrument for the purpose of performing an illegal operation, were proceeded with at the Magistrate’s Court. The case against Quinn was taken first. The principal witness said she had beerf for some weeks seriously ill in the Cook Hospital. Witness w’as pregnant. Harris took her to see Quinn where an instrument was used. A week later an instrument was again used. Witness paid a third visit and the same operation was performed but still with no effect. On the fourth occasion witness visited Quinn there was no operation on account of visitors being present at Quinn’s. Quinn said to witness that "she was fixing up Miss O’Donoghue.” Later Quinn said that they were taking out in a taxi. Shortly before 8 o’clock that night witness and Harris drove in Harris’s car to near Quinn’s house and saw Quinn and O’Donoghue in a taxi. Witness and Harris went in the same taxi. When some miles out in the country, Quinn asked the driver to stop the car. Witness and Quinn got out and an operation was performed by Quinn. As the result of the operation, witness had to go to a private hospital, then to the public hospital. Medical evidence was given to the effect that the young woman was suffering from blood poisoning and had apparently been tampered with. The police stated that on arrest, the accused said the girl concerned had never been in her house.

The accused reserved her defence, pleaded not guilty and was committed for trial. In the charge against Harris, evidence was given on somewhat similar lines. The principal witness said that the accused bad become intimate with her. She told the accused her position and he gave her some pills and then said that he would make arrangements with Quinn to "fix her up.” Detective McLeod said that accused, before the arrest, stated that he knew the girl, but no improprieties had taken place. The accused denied that the girl had told him her condition and he had never taken her to Quinn’s or given her pills. The accused pleaded not guilty and was committed for trial.