ATTEMPTED MURDER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 59, 10 March 1944, Page 3

ATTEMPTED MURDER

15-YEAR-OLD FARM HAND FOUND GUILTY (P.A.) Blenheim, March 8. After a retirement of 45 minutes, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on a charge of attempted murder against Allan Joseph Pope, a 15-year-old farm hand, who on October 4 attacked with a heavy plough spanner Mrs. Muriel Marguerita Robertson, mother-in-law of his employer, Arthur Gordon on whose property at Kaka Ridges he was engaged as a State ward. The boy and Mrs. Robertson, an elderly woman, were alone on the farm at the time, and the first intimation of what occurred was Pope’s appearance at the Ward post office, where he asked the postmistress to send for a police van, as he had: murdered Mrs. Robertson. A police party found the woman lying on the floor of the kitchen, Avith grave head injuries. Dr. Williams, superintendent of the Nelson Mental Hospital, called by the prosecution, gave evidence that accused was not insane, but in his opinion would be certifiable as an anti-social subject under the special provisions of the Mental Defectives Act. The defence offered no evidence, but counsel, Mr. A. A. Mac Nab, stressing the youthfulness of accused, sought to shoAv that he was incapable of appreciating the quality of his act. Mr. Justice Finlay told the jury that he concurred wholeheartedly in the verdict. Remanding Pope, he referred to the difficulty with which he was faced in dealing with him. FIVE YEARS’ BORSTAL Blenheim, March 9. “You have done a terrible thing, but what you did was along the lines of what you have been doing for a long time,” said Mr. Justice Finlay when sentencing Allan Joseph Pope aged 15, ' to detention in the Borstal for a period of five years. His Honour pointed out that Pope, who had been found guilty on a charge of attempted murder, had commenced a criminal history which could only be characterised as appalling. When at Wellington he had burnt a haystack in retaliation for not being allowed to collect insects on the property. Prisoner had been following a course oi conduct indicative of a ruthless determination to do what he wanted despite the'riglits of others. His Honour said he would take steps to prevent the prisoner's association at the Borstal with a companion in crime who Avas already detained there.