A SERIOUS CHARGE.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16710, 28 January 1926, Page 6

A SERIOUS CHARGE.

AJLLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER. DORN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. The case in which Roy Charles Dorn, aged 19, was charged with the attempted murder of Muriel Tetzlaff, ased 19, was continued in the Police Court yesterday afternoon. Philip Marsh, a boy of 15, who works at Fow's Mart, said that during the afternoon Dorn sent him out to buy a bottle of ammonia. S. A. Kerr, a chemist's assistant, ?poke to selling the bottle, produced, full of strong ammonia and marked as such, to the boy Marsh. The specific gravity was 88. James P. Hill, employed by Fow and Co., said he asked Dorn to get him some ajmmonia for the purpose of cleaning a table. He took out a small quantity only and placed the bottle on a shelf. When the police took possession of the bottle it apparently contained about the same quantity of liquid as when he placed it back on the shelf. Kenneth M. Griffen, Government Analyst, Auckland, said it was highly probable that death would have ensued had the girl' drank the amount of ammonia in the small bottle produced had medical aid not been procured promptly. The analytical test of the ammonia was 24, and not 35 as it should have been at the strength it was sold at by the chemist. The inference was, therefore, that water had been added to the ammonia in the larger bottle.

Detective F. Culloty said that when he and Detective Sweeney waited on accused he admitted that he gave Muriel Tetzlaff some ammonia, but said it was for the purpose of getting some ink stains out of her dress. He siad the girl had attempted to do away with herself on a previous occasion, and that Dr. Martin could tell them about it. They .took him to Ngaruawahia, where later, in an interview which witness had with him, Dorn made a statement in which he admitted paternity of the girl's unborn child and of giving the girl the ammonia, but said it was at her request, as she said that if he did not give her some she would get a quantity somewhere else. He denied that he had threatened to drink it if she didn't. In accused's room at the boarding house witness found a small bottle of benzine and also a rifle cartridge, from which some of the coruite had been removed. On January 12 witness again interviewed accused and told him that he (witness) had got the bottle of ammonia from Fow's. Accused replied, "I only took a small drop out of it and added water." This concluded the police evidence.

had nothing to say and reserved his defence. He was committed for trial at the coming sitting of the Supreme Court at Hamilton. An application for bail was made by Mr Tompkins, but the Bench, who said they regarded the charge as a more serious one than that of an ordinary attempted murder by violence, refused to take the responsibility of releasing accused on bail, even thougn he would promise to report to the police daily. At the conclusion of the case, Dorn was charged with the theft of a quantity of cutlery the property of Fow and .Co.

He was remanded till Monday next