GELIGNITE EXPLODES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 240, 11 October 1938, Page 12

GELIGNITE EXPLODES

MARRIED MAN IN COURT CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTING TO INJURE HIS WIFE VIGOROUS DENIAL OF STATEMENT After dissociating himself from a statement allegedly made to the police in the Wanganui Public Hospital, Charles Neil Neilson, a married man, aged 62 was committed for trial by Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., at Wanganui yesterday on a charge alleging that, with intent to do bodily harm to his wile, Elizabeth Annie Neilson, he put an explosive substance (three plugs of gelignite) among bamboo growing in the Wanganui East Esplanade. Accused pleaded not guilty and said at the outset that he denied what was in the statement he made. He went into the box before the hearing concluded and made an amended statement. in which he said that he was experimenting as to how to make an explosion by using electricity, when the gelignite went off. The statement read by the police alleged that he had set a trap for his wife, believing that she had been unfaithful to him. Detective-Sergeant J. K. Robertson appeared for the police and accused conducted his own defence. Doctor H. L. Widdowson said that Neilson was admitted to the Wanganui Public Hospital on the night o. July 25 last, suffering from a very extensive lacerated wound on the right forearm and hand. The wound contained a fair amount of vegetable matter, like small pieces of flax. They would be consistent with pieces of bamboo. There were numerous abrasions and bruises on the face, a very large bruise under the left eye, but no bones were broken. Accused was discharged on October 4. Discoveries in the Esplanade Discovery of an electric torch, a broken piece of a pair of spectacles, a mouse trap, a battery, wires and oil cloth lying near a hole 18 inches deep near the rustic bridge in the Wanganui East Esplanade was related by Thomas Henry Morrison, labourer, who was working in that locality for the Wanganui Beautifying Society. The discovery was made on July 27. Witness informed the foreman. Norman Neil Neilson, aged 19, son of the accused, gave evidence to the effect that he had interfered when his father had been beating his mother. Witness had heard accused threaten his mother. Detective-Sergeant Robertson: Did he give any reason for this? Yes, he said she was going out with another man. There is no truth in it, though. Did you tell him that?—Yes, several times. Witness said that he and he: mother had gone to the pictures on the night of the accident. When they returned home about a-quarter to eleven there was blood over the kitchen floor and boards outside. “He had a rag over his face and 1 asked him what was the matter,” witness said, referring to the discovery of his fat / r in bed. “He said he had been hit by a motor-car. All his face was swelled up on one side and all the flesh was gone off part of his right arm." Witness said that Dr. H. D. Robertson was sent for and his father was sent to hospital. Witness said that the Week before the accident his father was out from 11 o'clock on Friday Sight until 4 o’clock the following >iorning. That happene on two Rights running. Accused's wife, who said her age was 58, said that her husband had suspected her and was jealous of her. His feelings toward her had changed in that way during the past three years. In 1937 she took action and obtained a separation. She was away from her husband for three weeks and then went back to him, as he had promised to stop his “silly nonsense” and be better toward her.

“About a fortnight before this trouble he showed me a small board with detonators fixed into it,” witness said. “I did not take particular notice at the time. He showed it to me in the bedroom and said I was going to get it one of these days. I said, 'Go to bed and don’t be silly.’ ” Witness identified a mousetrap produced as one she had had on the gas stove to catch mice. She had seen her husband with it the week before the accident and he said he was going to patent it and catch 'possums with it. Police Interview Accused

Detective N. W. Baylis detailed police discoveries on the scene indicated to them by workmen in the Esplanade. A man’s cap was found hanging up in the bamboo. Further search revealed nine batteries, a Ford coil, a quantity of wire and the mouse trap. Witness had been investigating the sound of an explosion heard on the night of July 25 and had heard that there was a man in hospital who, allegedly, had been hit by a motorcar. Witness interviewed that man, who turned out to be the accused.

“I asked him how he had come by his injuries,” said Detective Baylis, “and he said at first that they were caused by his having been struck by a motor-vehicle. On my telling him what we had found on the Esplanade, he said: ‘I will tell you the whole of the facts and you will want a piece of paper a mile long to take them down.’ ” Witness read a statement which he said had been made and signed by the accused. This was to the effect that accused had purchased dry batteries, a Ford battery coil and with these, some wires and a mousetrap, he manufactured a trap, connecting gelignite and caps to the battery.

“I took this over to the spot where I considered that my wife and this man would go and I dug a hole in

the bamboo and planted it there,” the ' detective read from the statement, [which the accused said he wished to I deny. “I did not connect the wires I up. On Sunday evening I went over to the Esplanade and saw evidence that someone had been there. I then connected up the batteries with the gelignite and set the mousetrap so that, should they come there, the whole thing would go off. I then went home .... I left the trap all set until the Monday night (July 25). On that [night, my wife went to the pictures. While she was away I decided to go over to the Esplanade and shift the trap, as I considered they were using another place in the bamboo t took a trowel with me and after digging a hole in the place where I considered they would pass over, I then commenced to shift the trap, taking care to disconnect the wire before I shifted it. I shifted the trap and placed it in the new position and I was just about to connect the wires when I discovered that the wires were crossed. The next thing I remembered was an explosion. Then I found that ny right arm was bleeding badly and I that my cap and spectacles had been knocked off. I immediately realised that I was badly injured, so I crawled to the path and then managed to walk home. . . . What I have stated Jis the truth.” Accused’s Statement on Oath “I wish to give my own version of this case,” said accused from the witness box. “The statement I gave to the police in the hospital is not a true statement. When I gave that statement I was not in a physical state to give the true state of affairs. As a result I will deny everything in that statement. I do not plead guilty to the charge against me of intending to injure my wife. I was experimenting in the bamboo plantation with explosives. Through an accident, due to a mishap, the charge went off and blew half of my arm off. I was not i intending to injure anybody. I was experimenting with explosives and electricity during the two nights my wife

and son said I was out. What I wanted to find out was how to let off an explosive charge with electricity, and the only place I could find where I was safe was at the river bank. There were no people about who could be injured by the experiment. I just had the experiment complete when the two last wires crossed and the charge went off. Then I picked myself up and went home . . . My wife has stated here that she has never been in the Esplanade, and, therefore. I could not injure her as in the charge against me.” Getting Rid of Inquisitive People Detective-Sergeant Robertson: Had you any reason for telling people in the first place that your injuries were caused by being run over by a motorcar? —It is advisable to tell inquisitive people a lie to get rid of them. What was your reason in telling your wife and son and Dr. Robertson a lie following the accident?—l told a lie as a matter of form. I did not want them to know I was experimenting. You told a lie as a matter of form? —As a matter of form, yes. Asked if he had ever had trouble with his wife in regard to a gas employee, or if his son had ever interfered when there was domestic trouble, witness replied that those matters had nothing whatever to do with the case. He had been experimenting and he had accepted his wife’s word that she had not been in the Esplanade. Accused applied for bail, but the magistrate, in view of the seriousness of the charge and the fact that the , Supreme Court sittings were but three \veeks away, refused the application. Accused was committed to the Supreme Court at Wanganui for trial, and is to be held in custody in the meantime.