BLOOD DIAGNOSED IN A MURDER TRIAL MIGHT BE BLOOD OF ANIMALS

Wanganui Chronicle, 7 May 1948, Page 5

BLOOD DIAGNOSED IN A MURDER TRIAL MIGHT BE BLOOD OF ANIMALS

(P.A.) Christchurch. May 6 Thirty-five witnesses had been heard and 32 exhibits produced when the case for the Crown concluded in the Supreme Court this afternoon in the trial of William Eric Cooper, aged 43, nurseryman, on a charge of murdering Leslie James Boswell, aged three years and nine months, at Clifton, Sumner, on February 9. The jury viewed the locality this afternoon. No evidence was called for the defence and counsel will address the jury tomorrow, and Mr, Justice Fleming will sum up. Police witnesses today were crossexamined about warnings given to the accused before they took statements. They said that the accused was not warned on Februaxy 10, when interviewed at the Belfast Freezing Works, where he was employed. He was warned during an interview on February 11, when detectives learned the boy’s body had been found. When Dr. D. T. Stewart, pathologist, gave evidence that bloodstains were found on the accused’s clothes, Mr. J. K. Moloney, for the defence, asked if medical science could differentiate between stains from the blood of a man and stains from the blood of certain animals. Witness replied that it could not. Mr. Moloney: If a man had the opportunity of being in a place where the blood of animals was shed, is it possible that it is blood of animals you diagnosed. Witness: Yes.