GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16514, 26 August 1921, Page 4

GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER

MAXGMABU TRAGKDY. <P£*n Press Association.) WANGANUI, August 25. A case lor which there has boon no precedent iu the past, century occupied the Supreme Court to-day, when John Kinsella was charged with tbe murder of .George Gordou, at Mangamahu. The evidence was much on th© lines of that heard in the Lover Court. Gordon and Kinsella and a mailman named Gibson got very drunk in a vbare, something like five bottles of whisky being drunk in less than two days, m addition to drinks at an hotel. On the second afternoon Gordon lay on the floor, bared bis neck and asked Kinsella to cut his head off'. Kinsella went to the wood pile, and returning with an axo did as Gordon asked, the head being practically severed from the body. Gibson was too drunk to know what was taking place. Kinsella. informed a farmer and asked him to fetch the police, saying “He asked me to chop his head off, and I done it.” He repeated this over and over again, being in a. very drunken state When the police arrived ho still seemed unaware of the seriousness of his act, reiterating that he had only done what he had been asked to do. Kinsella and Gordon were good friends. Gordon was a confirmed drunkard, but in the language of a witness, was “a decent sort of chap.” Kinsella was addicted to drinking bouts, likewise Gibson. who was very drunk on tbe day of the tragedy, being unaware of the beheading, though in th© room at the time. Counsel for Kinsella (Mr. O’Leary of Wellington,) argued that prisoner was so hopelessly drunk that he was beyond the capacity of forming an intention, and therefore could not be convicted of murder, but manslaughter. None of the three men in the whare appreciated what they were doing, owing to tbe effect of whisky and beer. The jury after forty minutes’ retirement returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter. Prisoner was remanded for sentence.