MURDER CHARGE FAILS

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 22612, 17 May 1945, Page 4

MURDER CHARGE FAILS

WOMAN ACQUITTED (By Telegraph—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Thursday A verdict of not guilty was returned by the jury in the Supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday afternoon at the end of the trial of Lena Rosita Bernard, aged 33, on a charge of murder of her husband, Maurice Bernard, by stabbing with a carving knife in their apartment in Marion Street on the night of February 5. When the foreman announced the verdict, somebody at the back of the Court shouted, “Good work,” and accused collapsed on the seat in the dock with an exclamation and with her hand to her face. She was discharged. The jury was considering its verdict from 12.40 to 4.17 o’clock. Answering His Honour, the foreman said they acquitted accused of manslaughter as well as of murder. The jurymen were relieved from further jury service for two years. The case was heard before Mr Justice Finlay Mr W. H. Cunningham, the Crown Prosecutor, appeared for the Crown, and Mr G. G. G. Watson, with him Mr R. E. Pope, for the accused.