WOMAN STABBED

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1931, Page 7

WOMAN STABBED

ALLEGATION OF MURDER

CHARGE AGAINST RAMEKA

THE KILLING- NOT DENIED

CONTENTIONS IN DEFENCE

'REASON LOST IN FRENZY By T«l«graph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The trial of George Rameka on the charge of murdering Mrs. Gwendoline Johnson by.stabbing her as she lay in feed was continued to-day’ and was, unfinished when the court adjourned to-night. Two doctors said the wounds in the woman’s - body suggested that they were the work of a man in a frenzy. Rameka’s movements and remarks after the tragedy were described by several witnesses on the lines of evidence in the lower court. Mrs. Kura Murphy, Rameka’s cousin, said before he collapsed from the effects..of the poison he gave her a letter for his father, saying: “My girl has turned me down after I gave her my last £7.” He also said that -• was the end of his life and, “I have killed someone.” ’ ; Cross-examined, witness said Rameka was one of 17 children, only two of whom were alive. Witness had heard that a relative of accused in Taranaki had killed a girl with a tennis racquet and another relative in North Auckland had committed a serious offence. An interpreter said accused in a letter to his father said he was tired of this life and made requests concerning the disposition of his body.. “RATHER EXTRAORDINARY.” The case was described as a rather extraordinary onq, by Mr. Noble in opening, the defence. The fact thajt Rameka killed the woman could not be disputed. “You have an eye-witness/’ said counsel, “but it does not follow that Rameka is guilty of the crime of murder.” It was the reason of a man that made him accountable for his actions, said counsel, and the deprivation of reason acquitted him of crime. If a man was provoked into sudden frenzy so that he lost all selfcontrol, then a jury would be justified in finding him guilty of manslaughter only. The evidence was that the woman had been hacked about in maniacal fury. When Rameka was 15 A years old he went to the war in France and there in two and a-half years’ service he had his health permanently injured, continued Mr. Noble. Ever’ since then he had been in and out of hospital. This man and this unhappy woman were the closest lovers. He did not know she was married until after the tragedy. Evidence would be called to show \there was talk of marriage between them. “Then without any warning there came the sudden disillusionment and _ all Rameka’s dreams of love and happiness came clattering about his ears,” continued counsel. The treatment Rameka had received so worked on his mind that he was practically driven to a state of delirium. He told the woman he was going to kill himself and she replied, “Go away, you nigger, we do not want to have anything more to do with you.” If there was one thing more than another that Maoris were proud of, said Mr. Noble, it was that they were not “niggers.” To them that name was an unpardonable insult. Rameka went into a frenzy and he remembered nothing more about it until in the Auckland hospital he was charged with murder. He certainly did' not know the nature and quality of the act, nor that what he was doing was wrong. The second ground of defence was that by the sudden insult accused, was so provoked that he lost control of himself. Several witnesses gave evidence that on occasions Rameka acted strangely. A fellow worker said he seemed a “bit queer.” The hearing 1 was adjourned.