MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24895, 7 June 1946, Page 3

MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE

SEQUEL TO ACCIDENT AT SEADOWN

Arising out of an accident which occurred on the Main South road, Seadown, on April 6, causing the death of a woman aged 53, William Michael Macdonald (Mr R. A. Young), aged 20 years, faced three charges, the principal one being manslaughter, when he appeared before Mr G. G. Chisholm, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Timaru yesterday. Macdonald was charged with negligently riding a bicycle on the main highway at Seadown on April 6, thereby causing the death of Sarah Annie Kelman; with riding the bicycle without a brake attached to the rear wheel, and with riding it at night without a light. On the application of Senior-Sergeant S. King, who prosecuted, the inquest was held in conjunction with the case. Mr W. H. Walton appeared for the relatives of Miss Kelman.

Macdonald was committed to the Supreme Court for trial at Timaru on July 28. A further charge against Macdonald of unlawful carnal knowledge was dismissed. Senior-Sergeant King said that shortly after 7 p.m. on April 6, Mrs Elizabeth Kelman had left her home in company with her daughter. They had been walking - along the road, and had been in about the centre of the highway when the defendant had collided witn Miss Kelman, throwing her violently to the ground, as a result of which she had suffered serious head injuries necessitating her admission to the Timaru Public Hospital. Miss Kelman had collapsed and died the next night. Ernest Hugh Densem, a medical practitioner, said when he arrived at the scene of the accident he had found Miss Kelman lying unconscious on the roadway. She had suffered head injuries, and there were signs of a fractured skull, and of compression to her brain by internal bleeding. She had been lyipg with her head in a pool of blood in approximately the centre of the bitumen. As her condition had been critical, he had not carried out a detailed examination, but had arranged for her conveyance to the hospital. The night had been coinpletely dark, and a drizzle had been falling at the time. Macdonald had told him voluntarily that he had knocked Miss Kelman down, while riding his bicycle. The injuries Miss Kelman had suffered had been consistent with her having been flung violently to the roadway. William Allan Liddell, a medical practitioner, and house surgeon at the Timaru Public Hospital, said that Miss Kelman had been admitted to the hospital at 8.32 p.mJ on April 6. • He had carried out a full examination, and had found that she had been suffering from bruising and laceration of the scalp, and was bleeding from the right ear, and had previously been bleeding from the nose. She had not again regained consciousness, and at 9.30 p.m. on April 7, she had collapsed suddenly with the failure of respiration, and had died at 9.40 p.m., in spite of resuscitative measures. In his opinion death was due to compression of the medullary centres of the brain, due to odema of the brain. Mother’s Evidence Mrs Elizabeth Kelman, widow, of Seadown, said that about 8 p.m. on April 6, she and her daughter had left home to visit some friends on the opposite side of the road to which they lived. She had been carrying a lighted torch, and they had been walking across the road when she had heard a thud, and had found her daughter lying on the road. She had not heard anything approaching before her daughter had fallen. A misty rain had been falling at the time, and the night had been dark. She had given a statement to -the police shortly after the accident, said Mrs Kelitian, but she could not remember what she had said in it. To Mr Young, she said she could not remember any motor-cars passing them before the accident. In a statement which was read In Court, Macdonald said he estimated his speed to be about 15 miles an hour when he had hit Miss Kelman. For the defence, Mr Young asked that the charge of manslaughter be dismissed as trivial, because he thought no jury would convict in the circumstances; In committing Mcdonald to the Supreme Court for trial, the Magistrate said he could not take the responsibility of dismissing the case. A verdict in accordance with the medical evidence was returned at the inquest into Miss Kelman’s death.