MURDER TRIAL

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1935, Page 7

MURDER TRIAL

TOO INSANE TO PLEAD SUDDEN ENDING OF CASE BLACKBALL CHOCOLATES MENTAL HOSPITAL ORDER EVIDENCE OF EXPERTS By Telegraph—Press Association. Greymouth; Last Night. There was a sudden ending to the Blackball chocolate murder case in the Supreme Court to-day, the trial lasting only half an hour. Three alienists testified that in their opinion the accused, John Skielthorp Page, aged 36, a single man and a miner, was too insane to plead. Page was committed to a mental hospital during the pleasure of the Minister of Justice. The jury was instructed not to consider the innocence or guilt of the man if it considered he was too insane to plead- Page was charged that oj? September 24, 1934, at Blackball, he murdered Margaret May Smith, and that on or about September 22 at Blackball he attempted to murder Ethel Annie Bragg and Jean Kennedy Clark. Alternative charges were laid that Page with intent to injure or annoy attempted to cause poison to be taken by Misses Clark and Bragg. The charges were heard before Mr. Justice Northcroft. Mr. F. A. Kitchingham was Crown prosecutor and Mr. A. H. Paterson appeared for Page.

. In his address to the Grand Jury His Honour stated that the evidence was voluminous, consisting very largely, if not entirely, of evidence as. to the similarity of the handwriting of Pag© with that on the box of poisoned chocolates,, th© instrument of murder, There was other supporting evidence but th© handwriting was most important, His Honour warned th© Grand Jury that it was pot its function to consider Page’s sanity, which was a matter for the court after the Grand Jury had returned its bill. The jury’s concern was to decide whether there was sufficient evidence to put Page on trial. After a retirement of about an hour the Grand Jury returned a true bill, The Crown Prosecutor said that op May 19 Page had been admitted to the Seacliff Mental Hospital as a mental defective. Since that time he had been under constant observation by the superintendents of the Seacliff, Sunnyside and Seaview hospitals, all of whom were of the opinion that he was unable to plead or account of insanity, His Honour then directed a jury t© be empanelled to consider the question of Page's ability to plead. A common jury was empanelled, only on© juror being challenged by the prosecution. Drs. H, D. Hayes (superintendent of the Seacliff Mental Hospital), T. W. J, Childs (Seaview) and A. C. McKellop (Sunnyside), specialists in diseases of th© mind, all testified that they had observed Pag© and were of the opinion that he was not capable of undertaking hi© defence or fully capable of understanding the effects of a plea of guilty or of net guilty. PROVISIONS OF LAW. His Honour, addressing the jury, stated that section 32 of the Mental Defectives Act provided that if a person was found by the jury incapable of pleading a special order could be made detaining him until such time as his mental state improved so that he might be tried. The law relating to mental defectives presented for trial at the present time presented certain difficulties which called for consideration and possibly amendments had been made t© th© law from time to time, but they did not quite keep in sight the original purposes of those laws. He had discussed .the matter with the Chief Justice, whom he understood had placed before the appropriate authorities the condition of laws and the necessity for amendment, but that did not affect them. At the present phas© of the trial the jury was not being asked to consider to any degree th© guilt - or innocence of Page, Under thes© circumstances it was th© immemorial custom to empanel a jury to try the sanity of the accused, After a retirement of 17 minutes the jury announced that it had found Pag© insan© SO that he could not plead. Page was then committed to th© Seacliff Mental Hospital until the pleasure of th© Minister of Justice was known,