MURDER CHARGE

Southland Times, Issue 25747, 10 August 1945, Page 7

MURDER CHARGE

Hearing In Police Court Opens k

DEATH OF WOMAN AT OTAHUHU (P.A.) ’ AUCKLAND, August 9. The Police Court was crowded this morning when the Crown version of the tragedy at Otahuhu on July 9, when the naked body of a married woman was found in a wardrobe in a house in Seddon street, was unfolded. Stanley Winwood McKissick Reid, aged 41, a labourer,' was charged with the murder of Lila Williamena Hammond. .Th® Magistrate, Mr J. H. Luxford, presided. Mr G. S. R. Meredith led the evidence and Mr Hall Skelton, instructed by Mr George Skelton, appeared for the accused. A son of the deceased, Malcolm David Hammond, aged 11, described how the rooms of the house were occupied, saying that the accused, who boarded at his home, had a bedroom at the rear of the house.

“My father used to be home every night until four weeks before the tragedy, when he went to work at Helensville, coming home only at the weekends,” said the witness. On July 9, the witness went into a shop in Otahuhu about noon, and there met the accused. When the witness said he was going home for lunch the accused said it was too wet to go home and offered him money to buy lunch. Witness refused the money and w® 1 )" home, he, his mother and Reid all having lunch together. He left the house for school at 12.45 p.m. FRONT DOOR LOCKED The witness said that when he returned home from school about 3 P; 11 ?' he found the front door locked, which was unusual. He did not see his mother, but heard a movement in Reid’s bedroom. When another boy arrived the accused called out: “Malcolm, your mate is here.” Later in the afternoon the accused told the witness his mother had gone up the road. While playing with his friend the witness had a clear view of the house and did not see anyone enter or leave it. The witness said the accused was in a bad temper on the day of the tragedy. Part of Malcolm Hammond’s evidence was corroborated by another schoolboy, Edwin Roy Bishop, aged 12. Felix Richard Gallagher, a returned soldier from the present war, said he boarded at Hammond’s house for a year before the tragedy. Replying to Mr Meredith, the witness said Mrs Hammond was a very eventempered type of woman, ana she ana her husband were. very fond of each other and on the best of terms. The accused always seemed to behave himself and helped in the house. Reid once told the witness that he had written to a matrimonial agency and had received two replies. Reid was not in the habit of drinking intoxicants. On the morning of the tragedy Mrs Hammond went to the back porch to wave good-bye to her husband. The witness then told how he did not see Mrs Hammond when, he returned from work that evening. When the dead woman’s mother came to the house a search for the missing woman was made.

BODY IN WARDROBE “I heard Mrs Ellis scream and I went into Reid’s room,” continued the witness. “I looked into the wardrobe and saw Mrs Hammond’s body. It was not clothed and was in a sitting posture with the knees raised.” The discovery of her daughters body in the wardrobe of the accused’s room was described by Margaret Mary Ellis. In reply to a question by.Mr Meredith, the witness said she had spoken to the accused on several occasions. Reid once told her his wife and child had been killed in a motor accident on the Rimutaka Ranges about nine months previously. Frederick Williamson gave corroborative evidence. The husband of the deceased, Roland Malcolm Hammond, said his wife was a most even-tempered woman and was of a lovable disposition. For q month before July 9 he had been working between Helensville and Maungaturoto and was able to get home at the weekends only. On the morning of Monday, July 9, he left home for work at Helensville. The Rev. George Edgar Moreton, secretary of the Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society, said the accused had been known to him for at least four years. About 4 p.m. on Monday, July 9, Reid called at the office of the society and asked to see the witness. Reid said: “Hello, Geordie.” The witness knew Reid had been working at the Challenge phosphates and asked why he was not working that day. The accused replied: “I am in serious trouble.” Asked what was wrong, Reid said: “Oh, I can’t tell you, but it is a serious matter. Reid said he would call and see the witness that night, but was told that the witness would not be at home. The accused appeared to be very agitated. Dr Walter Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland Public Hospital, said he performed a post-mortem examination on the body of Mrs Hammond. In his opinion death was due to loss of blood from a cut throat. Her throat had been cut from, behind by a right-handed person. Numerous cuts on the deceased’s hands showed she had resisted. Death had occurred within an hour after the midday meal. The witness produced a number or heavily blood-stained articles of clothing- , The case was adjourned.