CHARGE OF MURDER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 110, 13 May 1941, Page 6

CHARGE OF MURDER

DEATH OF A WOMAN YOUNG MAN ON TRIAL GROWS OUTLINE OF THE CASE (Press Assn.; Wellington, May 12. The trial of Leonard Neiling, aged 29, a labourer, on a charge of murdering Mrs. Marjory Livingston Horton, at Wellington on or about January 9, 1941, was commenced in the Supreme Court to-day before the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) and a jury of twelve. Mrs. Horton was found unconscious with head injuries at Oriental Bay on January 9. and died in the Wellington Hospital on January 12. Mr. C. H. Weston, K.C., and Mr. W. R. Birks are conducting the case for the Crown, and the accused is represented by Mr. W. E. Leicester and Mr. T. p’ McCarthy.

There are 32 witnesses to be called by the Crown, When he was formally charged the accused pleaded not guilty. Opening the case for the Crown, Mr. Weston said the evidence would show that Mrs. Horton had lived with her husband, Captain M. W. Horton, and her daughter, Miss Wilmot Horton, at 333 The Terrace. She was 49 years of age, and it appeared that she suffered from hardening of the arteries. Drink Had Gained Control. Unfortunately, she was intemperate so far as drink was concerned. It had gained control of her, and she would evidently go a long way to obtain alcohol; but in spite of tnat. she ana her husband and daughter were on very affectionate terms and the house was a happy one.

On the morning of January 8 Mrs. Horton left home to visit a friend, Mrs. Welby, at Lower Hutt. When she left home she was not- in posstfsion of any alcohol, but when she arrived at Mrs. Welby’s home she brought three ‘'square-riggers" of beer. Shortly after 10 o’clock Mrs. Horton left to return, and at about 10.35 p.m. she boarded a bus at the corner of Witako and Porutu Streets. That same afternoon the accused, his father, and his brother, Tom Neiling, who was a member of th 3 Territorial Force, were at the Tramway Hotel in Adelaide Road His father asked the licensee, Mr. McFarland, if he would put the accused up for a week, and he was given room 3. The three men left tnr hotel about 8 o'clock. Tile accused actually did not use the room and never went back to the hotel. Later the same evening the accused and his father saw a Mrs. Collins, of 34 Richmond Street, Petone, and asked her if she could give the accused accommodation for two days. She gave the accused a room in a bach at the back of her premises.

Still later that evening the accused and his brother and a Miss Harriet Rangiwhetu, with whom Tom was keeping company, boarded a bus at Petone and bought three threepenny tickets. They apparently found they were on the wrong bus, so caught another and went to Lower Hutt. The two men tried lo get some beer at the Family Hotel, but without success. The two men and Miss Rangiwhetu then got on to the bus in which Mrs. Horton was travelling. They went to the rear of the bus and sat on the back seat, all together, facing the driver.

When they had taken their seats Mrs. Horton got up from where she was sitting, went to the back of the bus, and asked for a match to light her cigarette. According to one. at least, of the passengers, she appeared to be showing signs of liquor. The Maori girl gave Mrs. Horton a match, and she sat down opposite them on a seat facing the back of the bus. The accused got up and sat alongside her. At a stop beyond Petone the accused’s brother and Miss Rangiwhetu got out. and as the latter passed him the accused said, "I will be seeing you."

Liquor from Hotel

On the arrival of the bus in Wellington, Mr. Weston continued, the accused and Mrs. Horton left it together. A short time later they entered a taxi at the Printing Office stand, some time after 11.30. The taxi-driver would say that the accused asked him if he could get some beer at the Carlton Hotel, Willis Street. Four bottles of beer and a half-bottle of gm were obtained from the hotel by the accused, and the taxi-driver would say that Mrs. Horton, who remained in the taxi, Seemed nervous. After getting the liquor they went to Oriental Bay. Just as they passed the tram terminus one or other of the passengers remarked to the driver that it was a bit light there and asked him to go on a little further. He proceeded on about 300 yards and stopped between two clumps of trees on the seaward side. The driver would say that the accused got out first and that Mrs. Horton followed, and that on paying him off the accused suggested that he might want him later. Then the accused and Mrs.

Horton went down the bank and dis-. appeared from view, Mrs. Horton go.ng, as it eventuated, to her doom. i Mr. Weston described the finding 01; I Mrs. Horton about 8.45 a.m. the fol-. I lowing day. She was unconscious, her; ■ face was battered and bruised, there! ! were cuts on the brow and chin, and ■ her jaw was broken. There was con-j I siderable blood on the pebbly beach; and elsewhere and on Mrs, Horton's ; face, body, and clothes. One garment I had been removed and another partly ■ removed. She was lying back on the i earth with her legs hanging over the; parapet. Later that morning at tlici hospital doctors found evidence that' sexual relations had occurred. Crown’s Reconstruction of Tragedy. Near where Mrs. Horton’ was discovered were a full bottle of beer and broken parts of two others. Her belongings were on the ground beside her. A man’s handkerchief, bloodstained, was found embedded in thesand twelve feet from the wall, and it had been knotted twice. i'Toni those facts and from the post-mortem disclosed, said Mr. Weston, it was possible to reconstruct with reasonable accuracy what took place on the fatal spot. It would seem that Mrs. Horton, while standing on pebbles, was struck in the face and on the jaw with a fist and her jaw was broken. She was apparently a woman of delicate bone, which was made more fragile through her not having had natural teeth for many years. Doctors would say that from the marks on her body she was then forced back on to the parapet. The Crown's suggestion was that, in spite of having been struck about face, Mrs. Horton was not perfectly silent and that her assailant, who undoubtedly was her murderer, knottCu a handkerchief and put it round her face in an attempt to stop her moaning. Then, finding that that was unsuccessful. he throttled her. The doctors would say that there was evidence that she had been savagely throttled and that was the real cause pf her death, because it brought on a stroke.

Mr. Weaton said that the time of the assault was probably fixed by the relation of the position of the bloodstained handkerchief to the tide. Dealing with the accused’s movement’s, Mr, Weston said that on the morning of January 9, the accused went to Mrs. Collins' house for a wash and that afternoon he arranged with a Mr. Quinn to start work for him the next day. Instead, he disappeared. On January 23 he was accosted by a police constable at. Auckland and denied that his name was Neiling. The police took him in charge and took possession of the suit he was wearing and a blood-stained handkerchief. Replies lo Detective-Sergeant. On the following day the accused told Detective-Sergeant McLennan, of Wellington, that he had been on the bus, but would say nothing further. He said he would make a statement at the proper lime. To further questions, the accused said he did not know Mrs. Horton. Ho explained that bloodstains on the pockets of his trousers were caused by his having cut his hand on a door in an Auckland hotel. He was brought back to Wellington that night, and on January 26 he told Detective-Sergeant McLennan that he had been in the taxi on January 8 and had .gone to the Carlton Hotel and procured liquor, but he denied having gone to Oriental Bay and on to the beach. He added: “I will be able to prove where I went after I got the beer. I am not making any further statement at present. When I see my solicitor I can prove that I am innocent.” Mr. Weston said that the accused made no admission regarding the handkerchief found on the beach.

"On that evidence," said Mr. Weston, "the accused has been charged witn murder, and it will readily appear to you that it is not a case of premeditated murder; it is a .case of unpremeditated brutal assualt resulting in death." On January 27 the accused was charged with murder, and after being warned in the usual way, he said, "I have nothing to say.” Captain Mervyn Wilmot Horton, in evidence, said he was not anxious over his wife’s non-return, as he thought she had decided to stay with Mrs. Welby at Lower Hutt, as she had done previously. Next day he was interviewed by the police and identified his wife at the hospital. She had an unfortunate long-standing weakness for alcohol and would go to some lengths to obtain it, but immorality on her part was quite inconceiv-

able. Her health was not good, and she had been worrying a great deal about her son serving in the Royal Air Force.

The depositions of Mr. and Mrs. Welby, given in the Lower Court hearing, were put in and read to the jury.

Evidence was given this afternoon by Mrs. Lesa Collins, Petone, who was asked on January 8 to give the accused accommodation for a few days. She put him in a bach alone.

Under cross-examination she said she went to the back door of her house at 11.30 p.m. on January 8 and heard coughing from the bach. Next day she saw no blood on accused’s clothes.

Evidence on the lines of that given in the Magistrate’s Court was given by the driver and passengers in the bus in which Mrs. Horton, the accused and his brother, and a Maori girl, who was a friend of the accused’s brother, travelled from Lower Hutt to Petone. It was said that Tom Neiling and the girl alighted at Petone, but Leonard Neiling and Mrs. Horton came on to Wellington. The taxi-driver, who drove the accused and Mrs. Horton from a stand near the bus stop in Wellington to Oriental Bay, during which journey they called at a hotel and obtained some beer, also testified along the lines of his previous evidence, adding that the finding of a dark spot seemed to be Mrs. Horton’s suggestion. The Court adjourned till to-morrow.