ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23318, 29 September 1945, Page 4

ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE

Woman Committed For Trial Magistrate Refuses Bail I Husband’s Version of the Shooting (N.Z.P.A.) 4 NELSON, Sept. 28. On a charge of the attempted murder of her husband at Hope on August 31, Corona Effie Webby pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court at Nelson for trial. When accused’s counsel, Mr M. Ott, asked for bail, Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M., commented that if there was any chance of the husband and wife coming together again he would not allow bail. Senior-Sergeant Knight said that was the trouble. They were both seeking to come together again. His worship said that if accused was granted her freedom, judging by her, husband's demeanour, he might rejoin her, and one did not know what might happen. Senior-Sergeant Knight replied that Webby had been to accused's father's home where she was staying when previously on bail. The magistrate said he was not prepared to grant bail unless some guarantee was given that they could be kept apart, and he gave Mr Ott leave to renew the application on Monday. Husband’s Evidence Keith Webby said that on the day before all the family, including his wife, were engaged fencing a pea paddock. AU were on excellent terms. They had soup for tea that night, and after tasting it he did not continue to eat it, as it did not taste very nice. After tea they sat by the fire in the front room. He retired to bed first at 9.30, and slept in the double bed. His wife took the single bed. When the alarm clock went off at 6.15 a.m. hip wife left the room, returning in a few minutes. He did not open his, eyes, but heard a clicking noise, after which his head felt funny, and he could feel blood. He asked his wife why she had thrown a torch at him, but received no reply. Going to the bathroom he put a towel round his head, and on returning to the bedroom smelt a smell like gunpowder. He found his shotgun on.the,floor between the beds, and he took it outside and hid it in a macrocarpa hedge. He did not know exactly what had happened. He them sent his son for a neighbour. Asking his wife what happened, she replied: “I only meant to scare you." Continuing, Webby said that he had found that the work on the farm was taking all his time, and his wife took over the financial business. Up to two months ago he thought that his truck had been paid for. Early in August his wife informed him the truck had been borrowed by a relative, but when it was not returned, he sent her to make inquiries. She later stated that it was in Nelson for repairs. Intending to build a glasshouse on the farm, he had ordered £175 worth of glass from a Nelson firm. The glass was to be paid for on delivery, and he arranged for his wife to take out a mortgage on their Monaco property. He did not get the money, but did not find this out until about two months ago. Finally he told her to see about the truck and bring it home. Later his wife informed him that the truck had been taken to pay for the glass. She stated that it had been sold for £4OO, and she would be getting the balance over what was paid for the glass. She later brought home a car which she said she had bought with the balance of the money. He now knew the glass had been repossessed by the firm on the morning that he was shot, and he now also knew that the car had been taken back by the firm from whom it was obtained.

After leaving hospital, said Webby, he discovered that his wife obtained £146 from the Guarantee Corporation on the truck. Shown four letters, he said they were not written bv him. and he was not aware. of sums totalling £278 havingbeen borrowed from a Nelson firm in his name. Webby said he remembered a fortnight prior to the injury that he had not drunk his coffee at supper time owing- to its taste, and on the following day he did not drink his bottle of tea which he took to work on account of its taste. There was some discussion in June about getting strychnine for poisoning rabbits, but he did not know his wife had purchased one ounce of strychnine in August. Cyril William Wells, carrier, who called to collect the glass on the morning- of August 31, said that Mrs Webby told him her husband had tried to commit suicide. Other Testimony The opinion that it would have been impossible for a person lying on the pillow of the bed to have fired the gun in Webby’s bedroom was expressed in evidence by Senior-Seargeant G. G. Kelly, Arms Advisory Officer, Police Department. Other witnesses gave evidence of dealings with Mrs Webby in connection with materials for a glasshouse, the raising of a loan on a truck, the purchase of a car and concerning a request for a mortgage on the Monaco property. Henry Francis West, chemist, produced an entry in the poison register on August 7, when accused was supplied with an ounce bottle of strychnine. Accused had said she was sent by the Agricultural Department to obtain rabbit poison. lan Webby, brother of Keith Webby, said he worked on his brother's farm one night about six weeks ago. Mrs Webby called them to supper. He and his brother sat at their usual places at the kitchen table. Witness drank his coffee, but his brother had a sip, then went outside and spat it out. The coffee was poured down the sink. Qn the following day they each took a bottle of tea to work, his being a different shape as he did not take sugar. Witness found his tea good, but his brother spat his out saying it had the same taste as the coffee on the night before. Witness laughed and thought there was something wrong with his brother, so he tried it himself. It had a vile taste, and after one sip he spat it out.

In answer to the magistrate, SeniorSergeant Knight said tlrere was an accusation that accused tried to poison as well as shoot her husband.