SUPREME COURT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13676, 19 August 1908, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

Per Press Association. ■ WELLINGTON, August .18. At the Supreme: Court to-day /James dialler was found guilty, on a charge of stealing a bookmaker's ticket .valued at £l2 from Edward James Hughes, at Pahiatua, and sentence was deferred. William Gunn McKay was found guilty of stealing clothing , from the steamer Blenheim. He was 1 remanded for sentenced : "' : .William -'Edward Mackie, charged with assaulting Samuel Juliffe, a farmer of Johnsonville, and stealing from him a ■gold watch, was. found.guilty, of receiving stolen property, and obtaining money by false pretences\ by 'selling the same/ He was sentenced Ito i& months' imprisonment. .■'■'_"•■ : ■'■ ':■> '■ ■i J i '" CHRISTCHURCH,' August' 18.

At the. Supreme Court to-day, Leonard Sutherland, found guilty of forgery, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.

Charlotte .Elizabeth .Moraghan was indicted for that on April 18th last at Ashburton she committed the crime of bigamy by marrying George Wanacott, her husband, James Stephen Moraghan, being still alive. His Honour put the issue to the juiy—"Whether when accused went through the' second marriage ceremony, she had a honest and reasonable belief that her .husband was dead." After a retirement of about half an hour the jury returned with ;tie: answer " No" to the issue submitted-,- with the addition that the jury' ' wished His Honour to deal leniently with accused. His Honour said that the jury's answer was' equivalent to a verdict of guilty. Addressing accused, His Honour.;said that she .had no doubt been guilty in law of bigamy. After referring to the serious aspects of the crime in certain circumstances, His Honour said that though in tllie present case the jury had properly found that the woman had acted recklessly, and though there were suspicious circumstances connected with the second marriage ceremony, there appeared to have been some suggestion that her first husband was dead. / He thought he would fee giving full effect to the recommendation of the jury if he ordered accused to: enter into her own recognisances to come up for sentence when called- on.

Thomas Vickery was indicted, for that on May 31st last, in the Magistrate's .iCourt at Oxford, lie committed .perjury. After a retirement of twenty the jury -returned a verdict of not guilty,; and , accused was discharged. \ John Page, was . indicted on a:, charge, that he committed' perjury in a. case heard at the Magistrate's. Court, Christchurch, on May 10th last The case was not finished wnen : the Court .rose..

DUNEDIN, August. 18.. At the Supreme Court Frank George: Melhoo. pleaded guilty to four charges of indecently assaulting pupils at Mornington School, and' was sentenced to two years' hard labour. . ' Robert Wells, charged on four counts with having received copper .boilers, knowing them to have been stolen, was acquitted. The charge of. manslaughter against Richard Cornish, till recently licensee, of the Stirling Hotel, was commenced. Cornish: was charged with that he did kill his wife Catherine Elizabeth Cornish on May let. Accused pleaded " not guilty." The Crown Prosecutor (Mr F,raser) laid stress on the contradictory nature„of some of the evidence and also pointed out the contradictory nature of the statement of accused, .who had told the police repeatedly at first that-he got. up at 10 a.m. on, May Ist and stumbled oyer' the dead, body of his wife in the passage, and then he changed the time of his awakening from 10 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. The Crown Prosecutor •' called . the jury's attention to the enormous strength of accused, to his • wifes weakness for drink, to accused's own (statement that when she drank they quarrelled and said* that in,6ne of these quarrels Cornish might have ; underestimated his strength. .Elizabeth Gorej the cook, gave similar evidence to that given by her [at Balcluthav repeating : her statement that after Cornish took her in to see the dead woman he had : . said: I "I always said T -would murder her and I've done it." ■Mr Hanlon submitted witness to a severe cross-examination. -The ■} mediGalrevidence haying : been.' given;;.the; .Court' s "adjourned tiir to-morrow. ' "". '• : ; ' '