GIRL SHOT AT TE AWAMUTU

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1931, Page 9

GIRL SHOT AT TE AWAMUTU

REJECTED SUITOR CHARGED ATTEMPTED MURDER ALLEGED. GIRL LIES LONG. IN HOSPITAL. By telegraph.—Press Association. Hamilton, Last Night.. Frank James Kerr, aged 40, stood his trial in the Supreme Court at Hamilton to-day on a charge of attempting to murder Gertrude Edith West, aged IS, at T<? Awamutu on January; 24. Mr. H. T. Gillies, for the Crown, said the prisoner had been paying attentions to Miss West. The attention was neither acceptable to the girl nor to her parents. Kerr kept pestering the girl and was finally ordered .to remain away from the house. A few nights before the shooting Kerr attempted to again see the girl. The girl’s parents were poor and the mother had to go ou «.n do cleaning. - . On the morning of January 24 Miss .West was returning from office-clean-ing when Kerr, who it would be shown, borrowed a shot gun, followed her in a motor-car and spoke to her. She resented his approach and passed on homeward. Later, Kerr called at her parents’ house and in the garden.shot the girl,- necessitating her remaining hospital for a long period, during which time her life was despaired ot. . Immediately after the shooting Kerr said he had fired the gun accidentally. The whole question for the jury to decide was whether Kerr went to the house with the deliberate intention of shooting the girl or whether the gun was discharged accidentally. Miss West gave evidence on lines of that given in the lower court.