SHOWMAN BEFORE COURT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20731, 19 May 1937, Page 6

SHOWMAN BEFORE COURT

ALLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER CASTLECLIFF INCIDENT By Telegraph—Press Association WANGANUI, May 18. Charles Henry Bourne, aged 27, a showman, appeared in the Supreme Court to-day charged with the attempted murder of Ernest Frederick de Tourret, until recently licensee of the Albion Hotel, Wanganui. Evidence on the same lines as that given in the lower court was heard, in which de Tourret alleged that he had purchased the house Bourne and his mother were living in at Castlecliff, ad when in the process of shifting in an altercation developed and Bourne allegedly got a double barrelled gun I and, loading it, told witness to get out, I saying “If you don’t get out before I | count three I’ll let you have it in the face.” The accused counted three three times. At the third time de Tourret heard the safety catch go up and jumped sideways and forward, and the gun went off. Witness alleged that he saw the accused’s finger tighten on the trigger to fire the shot. The defence was an admission of the evidence up to the point where it was alleged that the accused called on de Tourret with reference to the occupancy of the house. The accused in evidence, said that [ he had not deliberately fired the gun, : but that it accidentally discharged when de Tourret was showing him how to disarm a man with a gun. The accused alleged that de Tourret and he discussed wrestling holds, notably Lofty Blomfield’s octopus clamp, hammerlock and key hold. De Tourret had allegedly asked the accused if he knew how to take a gun off a man, and the accused replied in the negative. De Tourret then asked the accused to get a double-barrelled gun from the wash-house. The accused alleged that when de Tourret grasped the gun to demonstrate he gave it a tug and it acci ’.entally went off, blowing a hole in the porch window. ”he evidence was concluded to-night and the counsel will address the jury to-morrow.