Supreme Court.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 483, 3 December 1869, Page 2

Supreme Court.

CRIMINAL SITTINGS. (Before Mr Justica Gresson and a Common Jury.) Evan Griffiths, whose case was partly reported in our issue of yesterday, was found guilty of a breach of the Bankruptcy Act, j 1667, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, with hard labour. — William Robinson pleaded guilty to a charge of forgery, and was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment, with hard labour. — Samuel Hight, charged with perjury, was acquitted. — James Brown, charged with robbery from the person, was acquitted. Tins Day. His Honor took his seat ou the Bench at ten o'clock precisely. The Court was crowded, it having been announced that the murder case would he commenced at ten o'clock. WIFE MU der. John Smyth was placed at the bar, charged that he, on the 6th November last, feloniously, wilfully, and with malice aforethought, did kill and murder Georgina Renton fc'rnyth, his wife. ' The prisoner, in a firm toue of voice, pleaded ■*■ Not Guilty." Mr Wynn Williams, who appeared for the defence, applied for an order that the money found on tlie person of the prisoner by the police should be handed over for the purposes of his defence. It was only a small amount. His Honor asked the Sheriff what the sum was. The Sheriff; £6 or £7, your Honor. His Honor granted the application. Mr Williams '• thcu claimed the right to challenge for came before making peremptory , challenges.

Mr Duncan offered no objection, and his Honor conceded the right. Several challenges were made by the Crown Prosecutor and Mr Wynn Williams. Ultimately a jury was em pannelled, and Mr David McFarlane, of Gloucester street, storeman, was chosen foreman. Mr Duncan briefly stated the case to the jarj", and called the following witnesses in support of the indictment : — Sergeant-major Pardy : lam stationed at Lyttelton. I remember Saturday, the 6th of I November last. I saw the prisoner on that day at the police station, Lyttelton, at a quarter to six o'clock in the afternoon, lie told me that his wife was dead. I thought it strange he should report to me the death of his wife, and I asked him if she had died suddenly. Mr Williams here applied to have all the witnesses ordered out of Court. His Honor directel all the witnesses (except the medical witness) to leave the Court. Mr Williams said he must apply to have the medical witnesses also ordered out. His Honor said that such a course would be a most unusual one. He had never known medical witnesses to bo ordered out of Court, and had never heard of an instance of the | kind. Mr Duncan objected to 'the medical witnesses being ordered out of Court. Mr Williams said that the two medical gentlemen were most important witnesses for the Crown, and it was very undesirable that they should hear each other's evidence. His Honor referred to " Taylor upon Evidence," section 1259, and remarked that he saw no objection to the medical witnesses being ordered out of Court. Mr Duncan said that he bad a great objection to the medical witnesses being ordered out of Court. It was necessary for the ends of justice that they should hear the evidence of the other witnesses in the case. Mr Williams said he had no objection to the medical witnesses remaining in Court during the examination of the otber witnesses, but he objected to their hearing each other's testimony. Mr Duncan said he had no objection to one medical witness being ordered out of Court while the other was being examined. All the other witnesses were then ordered out of Court. Examination continued : When I asked the prisoner if his wife had died suddenly, he said " Yes." I then told him that I would accompany him to his house, the Railway Hotel, Lyttelton. On the way there he told me that he had had to tie ber down because she was drunk. He also said that she was subject to fits, and that she had been spitting blood. On arriving at the Railway Hotel, I went iuto a room upstairs, over the bar, the prisoner following me into the room. I saw the" body of deceased lying on -her back on the floor. It was the body of Georgina Renton Smyth, t-he was then dead. Prisoner then showed me how he had tied her. The hands were tied by tbe wrists over the shoulder, to the bar of the bedstead, lt was a common iron stretcher, and the deceased was tied to the side bar of it. The legs were tieJ at the other end of tbe stretcher. The hands were . tied by a rope. There was a piece of rope lying on the floor near the feet of deceased. The piece of rope produced (marked exhibit 1) was lying a short distance from the feet. It had blood on it when I saw it, as now. There was another piece of rope (now produced and marked No. 1) on the side-bar of the stretcher, near the head of the stretcher. It appeared to have been cut, and also appeared to be a | portion of the same rope as exhibit 1. The j prisoner pointed to the piece of rope exhibit 2, and told me that that was where he had her hands tied. I subsequently measured the ropes (<xhibitß Nob. 1 and 2) in order to see what position the hands would be in when tied. The piec?s of rope had never been out of my possession. I measured them on the same evening. By measuring them, I found that the arms must hare been brought back to their extreme tension. The piece of strap now produced (marked exhibit 3) was round the side-bar of the stretcher, opposite the feet of deceased, Prisoner pointed out to me that that was the place where he had tied her legs. Pointing to the piece of strap, he said, "That is where I tied her legs." The piece of strap appeared to have been recently cut. The straps now produced (marked exhibits 2 and 4) I found under the dressing table in the came room, opposite the legs of the deceased, about two feet away from them. The largest sized strap of the two appeared to have been recently cut, and to be a portion of the strap marked exhibit No. 3. I compared a portion of exhibit 4 with exhibit 3, and found them exactly alike in size. They fitted together in the place where they appeared to have been cut. I examiued the portions of the body which were exposed, namely, the face, hands, and ankles. One of the ankles was uncovered. I pulled tho stocking down on the other leg, having seen marks through the stocking?. I saw numerous marks, which appeared to be marks of violence, over on the ankles. I saw what appeared to be a severe contusion on the left eye, on the temple. There was a recent cut on the right cheek, and the flesh around contused. There was blood on the lips, it was dry, and an abrasion at the right corner of the mouth, outside. The wrists (which were uncovered) had marks round them, as if from a ligature -tightly bound, and such marks as the pieces of rope (exhibit 1 and 2) would make, 'lhe skin of the wrists was not cut or bruised. The marks went the whole way round, and the flesh was swollen on both sides of the ma'ks, round the whole of the wrists. I cannot say whether the flesh waa discoloured or not. The right hand was- swollen.' I told the prisoner I should arrest bim. I did so, and cautioned him. I didn't suspect foul play until I saw the marks on the body. The prisoner said nothing when I arrested him. I brought him to the police station I left constable Willis in charge of the body. I locked tbe door, and gave him the key. There was a girl

named Maty Ann Walters in the house when I went to it. There was also a man there, named Godfrey, who was cook at the hotel. Alexander Heron and others were walking about the bar and room off the bar. I produce ropes and strap marked exhibit 5, and one strap (exhibit 6), which I found on tbe mantel shelf in a reom down stairs. Cross-examined by Mr Williams : I went to the prisoner's house immediately after he reported the matter. It would take less than five minutes to go to the Hailway Hotel from the police station. I did not see Godfrey when I first went in. I went straight upstairs. I might have seen Godfrey on going to the house, but I didn't know him. It was after I had left the prisoner at the police station that I saw Godfrey in the house. I am not quite sure that I may not have seen him before. I would not swear positively that Godfrey was not in the room when I went in with the prisoner. I have no recollection of Godfrey or any other person being in the room when I first went in with the prisoner. Constable ■* illis came in two minutes afterwards. lam inclined to believe, to the best of my memory, that Godfrey was not there. I spoke to Godfrey after leaving prisoner at the police station. As far as I can recollect, I first of all asked him what he knew of the case. His Honor said he could not take evidence which had reference to a conversation behind the back of the prisoner. Mr Williams urged that he had a right to get the evidence in cnmexamination. Cross-examination continued : Godfrey told roe tbat he knew nothing about the case. Jle was very reluctant to give me any information. I arrested Godfrey on the following Monday evening, on a charge of being accessory to the death of Georgina Ren ton Smyth. I didn't take Godfrey before the Resident Magistrate. [Did you take him before a mag's tra te atall?] I took him before Dr Coward, who is a magistrate and coroner. I didn't take him before a magistrate ona charge of manslaughter. He made a statement before being taken before the coroner. I wrote down the statement in writing. I told Godfrey that I would take no statement from him unless I took it down in writing. I was present when boards were cut out of the floor of the room where I found deceased lying. The boards cut out were those portions of the flooring on which the body lay when I went into the room. There were blankets under the shoulders and head of the deceased. The body was lying on its back on tho boards. The head was much lower than the body, inclining downwards over the blankets. The face was upwards, a little to the left side. There was a chest or box at the side of the body. Francis Lockyer was called at this stage of the proceedings. He deposed : lam clerk of works in the Engineer's department. I went to the Railway Hotel, Lyttelton, to make a plan thereof. I did so, and now produce the plan of the hotel in question. The scale is correct. There are three plans altogether —upper storey, ground plan (level with the street), and basement plan. The plan of the rooms is correctly delineated. The staircase leads from the room marked " private room " down to the kitchen. The height of the staircase, from the surface of the kitchen floor to the floor of the " private room'" is 7 feet 11 inches. From the floor of the "private room " to the fl or of the bedroom, the height; is 9 feet 7 inches. I also produce a scale corresponding to that on whioh the plan is made. The figures on the plan show the number of steps from the floor wherever the staircase starts from. Cross-examined by Mr Williams : The Railway Hotel fronts on London and Canterbury streets. The front on London street is comparatively level. There is a considerable incline from London street down Canterbury street. The stair from the " private room '** (which adjoins the bar) to the kitchen floor is very steep — at an angle of 45 degrees. The upper steps were much steeper stilt. There were only three straight steps, and tbe rest were " winders." The whole of the steps were of equal height, but they became narrower as they went up. Sergeant-major Pardy was re-called, and marked with a cross on the plan produced the spot where the bed was, the head of tbe cross towards the foot of the bed, and where deceased lay. Supposing a person were sitting on the box, and raised the head, of the deceased on his knees, and then let it fall down, it would fall over the blankets into tbe position in which it lay when I entered the room. The deceased's legs were lying parallel with tbe bedstead. The legs were nearly straight, not drawn up in any way. The ankles were exactly opposite the strap on the bar of the bedstead. [The witness exhibiting Mr Lockyer's plan to his Honoi and the jury, pointed out the position whicl the bed, the body, and the box occupied when he first entered the room.] ; Re-examined by Mr Duncan: The armt would not have been in the same position it which I found them if the cords had nol been cut. They were lying across the body in a natural way. By the Foreman: Tbe wounds appeared tc have been recently inflicted. Tbey were nol o'd wounds. The hands were loose when 1 saw the body. The prisoner explained tc me the way they had been when they wen tied. Constable -Michael Quinn : I am stationec at Lyttelton. I know the Railway Hotel which was kept by tbe prisoner. From in structions received, I went to make a searcl there on the 9th November last. I found i piece of wood concealed at the foot of an iroi bedstead in the room where deceased hat lain dead. On the iron bedstead there was i quantity of bedding and bedclothes. It searching the room, I had to remove the ben and bedding before I could see the piece o wood. I found it lying at the foot of th bedstead, on a pair of woman's stays, whicl were lying under the bedstead. I saw th deceased lying there previously. The piec of wood was lying near the spot where he bead lay. There were pieces of cord attache

tb the piece of wood, and some hair was on it. X produce the piece of wood in the same state as when I found it. [The piece of wood was here put in as exhibit 9, and exhibited to the Court and jury.] Cross-examined by Mr Williams : In any ordinary case, I should say that the stays were partly concealed. I have been many times at the Railway Ilotel. "I have been there on several occasions.; Several days have paassed without my being there. I had known Mrs Smyth for about 18 months pre vions to her death. I have seen her intoxicated. I have seen her very considerably under the influence of liquor. I remember, abont four or five months ago, seeing Mrs Smyth very violent, and under the influence of liquor. She was violent in language on that occasion. The prisoner asked me to take her in charge. He said she was drunk, and was a great annoyance to him. She was making a great noise, as women in liquor do, but she was not violent except in manner and language. She took hold of a chair, and removed it violently to the other end of the room. I said I wouldn't take her into custody, as she wasn't incapable, and that if she wai to go, he must lay an information against ber. I never saw the deceased in a fit. She never told me that she was subject to fits. I did not know that she was. Thomas Godfrey : I am a cook. In tho month of November last I wa** cook to the .prisoner at the Railway Hotel. I remember Saturday, the 6th of November. I was in the ♦Railway Hotel on that day. l saw the prisoner before 9 o'clock on that morning. I did not again see him until about 1 o'clock inthe afternoon. The servant, Mary Ann Walters, was in the house that morning. Mrs J- myth and the children were also in the house that morning ; no one else. I didn't hear the prisoner say where he was going. I merely cleaned bis boots, and passed them upstairs to him. Mrs Smyth brought me down the measures that forenoon from the bar to the kitchen to clean. I next saw her at about a quarter to twelve o'clock, and again at a little before one, when she fell down stairs. I hadn't seen Smyth from the morning. I heard nobody above just when she fell down. She got up of her own accord, and went half-way up the stairs. She then fell down again. She got up a second time, and went upstair.'. Two or three minutes alterwards I heard a .noise above the kitchen. I heard the prisoner's voice. He was speaking as though he were vexed. It seemed as if be had either "shoved" or pulled her down. He then pulled her down the stairs by the hair of the head. It was after I heard the sound of the fall on the floor that prisoner dragged Mra Smyth downstairs by the hair of the head. When he got her downetairs he bumped her head on the floor, and then put his foot on her throat. He then said that she had an . Irishman to* deal with now. Then he took some Tope out of his pocket, turned ber over on her belly, and tied her hands fast behind her. fie turned her back on her back with her hands underneath her back, and put a piece of wood in her. mouth, and fattened it with. a siring round ibe heck. -Phe piece of wood hid a string fastened to it at one end, he passed itfe string round the back of her neck, and fastened it to the other end of the stick. It was a round piece of wood. The piece of wood produced, with cords attached, is the same. The cord looks like the same. It was •mall cord "similar to that. Prisoner then went upstairs and left tbe deceased lying at the foot of the stairs, which came right into the kitchen. As soon as he got upstairs I got down on my knees (I wasn't able to stand), and took the stick out of her mouth. I waa going to turn her over to take the rope off her hands when I heard the prisoner coming . down stairs. He came down, and challenged me, saying, " You have been at some of your old tricks again." I asked him what he meant. He didn't answer. He took her by the legs and trailed her into the room that I slept in, off the kitchen. I then went upstairs to get a smoke at the front pirt of the -bar. I was there about ten minutes. Prisoner then came up, and I went down stairs, and made preparations to scrub the "kitchen. I crept into the room where Mrs Smyth was, on my bands and knees, and cut her adrift. I cut the rope with -which her bands and arms were fastened -first ; then I cut the strap which was round her legs, and fastened to the bedpoet. I crept out again and commenced -scrubbing. About a minute or two afterwards, Mrs Smyth came out, and asked me if I had a comb, as she wanted to comb her hair out. I told her I had none. She put the hair off her face with her hand, then opened the cellar door and threw in the ropes that had been fast round her hands. After throwing the ropes into the cellar, she went upstairs. Prisoner came down just, as Mrs Smyth got upstairs. He went and looked into my room, and asked where Mrs Smyth "had got. I told him she had gone upßtairs. He said "D — it, you have been up to some of your old tricks again." I said nothing Prisoner then went upstairs. Tbe whole of what I have described commenced just about i o'clock. It did not last very long. Smyth put the gag in bis pocket when he found it was out of his wife's mouth on coming downstairs. He picked it up and put it in his pocket. The next thing I heard was Mr& Smyth coming' downstairs from her own bedxoom to the room off the bar on the groundfloor. The next noise I heard was in the back room, after Mrs Smyth bad been down- ' stair 9 a little while. There was then a noise between Mrs Smyth and Smyth. I heard a sound as if the door leading from the room into the bar was being tried to be opened. 1 heard tbe bolt drawn. They bad some noise. Prisoner wanted Mrs Smyth to go upstairs. She appeared by the sound to So halfway up the Btairs. I heard steps following her up. Before I heard the footsteps going up the stairs, I heard Smyth saying to her either to go up stairs or down I heard nothing more till about five o'clook What I have just been describing occurred about three o'clock. About Aye o'clock my-

self and Mary Ann Walters* the servant girl, were standing in the kitchen. Prisoner came running downstairs, took a knife off the table, and said "Oh, my wife's dying." He went right upstairs without saying anything more, taking the knife wilh him. The knife produ ed is the same. I crept upstairs ; it took me a long time to get up. As soon as I got to the door, the prisoner told me to get a glass of dark brandy. The prisoner was sitting on a chest right opposite the bed. Her head was resting on his legs. He told me to fetch up a glass of dark brandy. I went to the top of the stairs, and called out to Mary Ann Walters to fetch a glass of dark brandy. She came running upstairs, and Smyth called to her to fetch a glass of dark brandy quick. As soon as she brought it up, Smyth took it and placed it to Mrs Smyth's mouth. He then dispatched the girl for Dr Rouse. The doctor was there almost directly. Mrs r myth was sober the whole of that day. I can swear that she was sober the whole of the forenoon. The whole of the day that I saw her Bhe was sober. I have been in Smyth's service about 15 months. I remember the Tuesday night before the 6th November. Prisoner used Mrs Smyth badly on that day. Prisoner had his wife fast with a rope upstairs in her bedroom on the Tuesday. 1 heard the sound of blows. On Wednesday morning, I heard sounds in the room above the kitchen, as if a person were being beaten j with straps. I heard the voices of the prisoner and Mrs Smyth. He said that he would either kill or cure her. He also made use of these words on the following Saturday. On the Wednesday morning, after I heard the sounds as if of flogging, the little girl came down to the kitchen, and said that her father — His Honor: It is no matter what she told you. Examination continued : Mrs Smyth came down after the little girl and showed me marks on her legs. She also pulled down her dress, and showed me marks on her shoulders. The marks were red and blue. I had previously seen the prisoner ill-treat her. Four or five months before, I saw the prisoner drag Mrs Smyth downstairs to the cellar by the hair of the head. She had nothing on but her night dress. He made her hands fast behind her back, and her feet fast. He came' out and shut the cellar door, leaving her inside. She was not fastened to anything this time. I went in aud cut her feet adrift. I heard the prisoner coming I downstairs, and I came out. He looked in I and saw that she was there, and he then shut the door again. He heard her moving. He went into the cellar, and made a " grab" at her hair ; she jumped through a square hole in the cellar into the gully. This was before breakfast time. By getting through that hole in the cellar she could escape from the house. After this, and before the 6th of November, I heard a noise upstairs. Prisoner fetched her down into the cellar. He tied her hands staight over her bead (stretched out) and her legs also, and fastened her to two posts in the cellar. The posts were apart. She was lying down on her side, and her hands were tied to one post and her feet to the other. On coming out of the cellar on that occasion, the prisoner cautioned me not to set her adrift. On one occasion, about four months, or a little more, before the 6th November, he put her out of the honse after twelve o'clock in the morning, and locked the door. She came to the back door. I was in bed. She sang oat to me, and I came out of the room to unbolt the door. When I got out I saw the prisoner standing at the back- door, and he told me not to unbolt it, and to go back to bed again. I did so. About ten minutes afterwards I heard a man and the prisoner arguing in the street. The man told Smyth that he was no man to use bis wife so badly. The man was going to hit the prisoner, and he returned inside the hotel. I have seen the prisoner illtreat Mrs Smyth several other times, these last ten months back. Besides tbe time 3 I have mentioned, I have heard the prisoner threaten to either kill or cure her. I have also heard him say that he wished she were dead. I heard bim say that several times these last niae or ten months back, and during the week Mrs Smyth died. Mary Ann Walters was in the kitchen when the prisoner dragged Mrs Smyth by the hair of the head down to the kitchen, on the 6th of November. She had the child in her arms, and I told her to go out. She went out to the backyard. I had never seen the prisoner use the gag previous to the 6th November, not downstairs. I had seen it in his possession in the bar about a week before, with the ropes attached. It was near the door leading from the bar to the parlour. After the death of Mrs Smyth — on the same day— the prisoner told me to keep my mouth shut. He said that just when he was arrested. He told us, on the day the inquest was held at house to say as little as we could. By "us," I mean Mary Ann Walters and myself. I heard him distinctly say so. Cross-examined by Mr Williams : During the time I had lived with Mr and Mrs Smyth, I saw her drunk five or six times. I never saw her in a fit. I didn't know that she was subject to fits. I heard the ser rant say that she was subject to fits. I swear positively that I didn't see Mrs Smyth drunk more than five or six times during the fifteen months I lived in her house. I was in the room where the deceased lay when Dr Rouse came up. Every time I saw Mrs Smyth on the 6th November, she was sober. I swear that she was quite sober all the day. Prisoner told Dr Rouse that he had to make her fast. I didn't hear him say anything about her being drunk. I did not confirm what prisoner said to Dr Rouse. I made no remark to Dr Rouse at all. The Railway Hotel is built of wood. I persist in saying that Mrs Smyth was sober when she fell down the stairs at one o'clock. She fell down the second time. The stove was close to the stairs, and I was standing at it at the time. I heard her foot slip in the narrow part of the stairs. I was standing sideways towards the stairs. The staircase was open halfway up. You could see a person going ap until he nearly reached the topof the 1

stairs. She fell down backwards. I swear that she got up, and went upstairs again. I didn't attempt to raise her. I could not do so, not being able. I couldn't stand on my legs to lift her up. I asked her to sit at the foot of the stairs, as I thought she might hurt herself. .. I have not had any con versation with Mary Ann Walters, or any of the witnesses, with reference to this case since the inquest. 1 told Mary Ann Walters to go into the back yard after Mrs Smyth was pulled downstairs by the hair of the head, because I was afraid that Mrs Smith would catch hold of her and hurt the child in her arms. I was in fear of that, because I had previously seen Mrs Smith tear the breast of the former servant servant girl in trying to escape from the illtreatment of the prisoner. Mrs Smith was quite quiet ; she was not excited, bhe was quite quiet when she asked me for the comb to comb her hair. The house has two fronts — one to each street. I didn't say a word about the case until after I was arrested. I toll some of it to Sergeant Pardy before my apprehension. I told something to Sergeant Pardy, but I don't exactly know what. When the prisoner first pulled her downstairs, she made a uoise. Nobody came in. I 'don't know where tbe stick (alluding to the "gag ") came from. I kuow a man named Brown, who was in the habit of coming into the bar. I don't recollect a conversation in the bar between Brown and myself with reference to Mrs Smyth's intemperate habits: I never heard Brown say to prisoner in my presence that a gag was a good thing. to use for drunken people; that it wouldn't hurt them. I don't remember prisoner saying anything about a gag. I saw Brown on the Tuesday before the 6th of November. Nothing took place then about a gag — not a word. I didn't see Mrs Smyth in the bar at the same time on the Tuesday. I never heard Brown ■ make remarks which excited Mrs Smyth. I had no conversation with Mary Ann Walters after she had returned from the backyard. Mrs Smyth never complained to me of being hurt by falling dowustairs on Nov. 6. I never told Mary Ann Walters that I had to use very great exertions that day to keep Mrs Smyth from breaking the dishes. Mary Ann Walters had been in Smyth's Bervice from the Wednesday before Saturday, November 6. I did not tell her that I had to kneel on Mrs Smyth's stomach to prevent her breaking the dishes. I told her that I had to get on my knees to cut her adrift. [Left sitting"]. j