FOUND GUILTY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20538, 13 February 1935, Page 4

FOUND GUILTY.

Young Man Charged With Manslaughter. “ACTED ON SPUR OP MOMENT.” Per Press Association. HASTINGS, February 12. As a result of the Christmas tragedy in Hastings, involving the death of a young man, Wilfred George Farquharson, another young man, Maurice James Brooker, stood his trial in the Supreme Court, Napier, this.morning on a charge of manslaughter. Mr Justice Smith presided. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of “ unlawfully assaulting Wilfred George Farquharson, causing his death thereby,” with a strong recommendation to mercy on account of the youth of accused. The Crown Prosecutor and his Honor agreed that such verdict amounted to one of manslaughter. The Crown alleged that a young woman, Nola Perrin, had been keeping company with accused, but three months before Christmas the engagement was broken off, accused subsequently telling her that he would “clean up” anyone he saw walking out with her. On Christmas Eve, when accused had been indulging freely in drink, Farquharson carried the girl’s parcels from the shop in which she worked to her home. While they were talking at Miss Perrin’s gate accused came on the scene and struck Farquharson on the jaw, with the result that he fell on the concrete path, sustaining injuries from which he died.

Brooker, in the witness box, said he ■was twenty years of age. After calling at Perrin’s house to leave a present for Miss Perrin, he went to a nearby corner, where he sat on the kerbing,* apparently going to sleep. He was awakened by footsteps, and he recognised one of the approaching couple as Miss Perrin. He aimed a blow at the man’s face. “I must have acted on the spur of the moment. I cannot say what made me do it,” he said. He said he did not lie in wait for the couple. He and Miss Perrin were engaged up to the Thursday before Christmas. The jury returned its verdict after a retirement of three hours.