NEWLANDS MURDER CASE.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15245, 23 May 1923, Page 4

NEWLANDS MURDER CASE.

With the verdict returned by the jury in the Newlands murder case few who have followed the evidence will disagree. All the circumstances indicate that Cooper had been engaged in baby-farming on a fairly extensive scale, and the fact that four innocent children were reported missing and could not be traced, whilst three little bodies were unearthed on a farmlet of 19 acres in the possession of the prisoner, was an established reality which the jury, in conformity with their oath, could interpret in only one way. Counsel for Cooper made a great effort on his behalf, but his argument lacked conviction. If the statement ■of prisoner that the children had been adopted was correct, he had merely to indicate the foster parents, and- the charge against him would have broken down completely, whilst the argument advanced that women who had adopted the infants would refrain from coming forward to clear accused because of a natural disinclination to proclaim that they had no children of thdir own can be dismissed as illogical. No woman who has the love of her kind so firmly imbedded in her nature as to impel her to mother a helpless infant stranger could when the life of a fellow human was at stake bring herself to keep silence because of a personal disability. The mere idea is an injustice and a gross libel, and its advancement can be taken as an indication of counsel’s realisation of the hopelessness of his case. The jury faced a painful task, and they carried it out faithfully. It will be satisfactory to them to know that their verdict in regard to Cooper is generally endorsed. In the case of the female accused there was a big element of doubt, and in accordance with British law, she was entitled to the benefit of it.