EVIDENCE IN RAPE CASE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28266, 2 May 1957, Page 17

EVIDENCE IN RAPE CASE

Girl Complainant Cross-Examined (New Zealand Press Association) NAPIER, May 1. Further evidence for the Crown was heard in the Supreme Court today in the trial of Alfred Lyle Andrew, aged 40, traveller, of no fixed abode, on a charge of rape at West Shore on March 19. After the girl complainant had completed her evidence, which occupied nearly five hours yesterday afternoon and today, Mr Justice McCarthy excused her from further attendance' in Court.

Mr A. O. Woodhouse, with Mr W. R. Willis, appears for the Crown, and Andrew is represented by Mr R. Stacey, of Wellington.

Cross-examined by Mr Stacey, the girl complainant said that at no time did she ever feel ashamed of her actions but, she said, she felt “a bit foolish” about having gone put with Andrew and being “taken in.”

Mr Stacey: When you received that phone call from “John Nolan,” did you have any wish to meet him, other than because he said he was the brother of cne of your girl friends?—Well, it was my day off. So, really speaking, you welcomed this opportunity of filling in an off day?—Yes, I suppose so. If you had not wanted to go out with him, you had the stock excuse of saying that you were on duty?—Yes. Drinks in Hotel

Cross-examined further, witness said that March 19 was the first time she had ever been in a hotel bar. She had had gin before, however. When Andrews invited her to have a drink on March 19, she said she would like one, but something light. Mr Stacey: I am instructed that you had about 10 gins in the hotel. Is that right?—Gracious, I’d have been well and truly out if I had that much.

Is it true that you have been taking alcoholic drinks in a social way during the last three or four years or so? No, I do not even now, unless on some special occasion.

Nembutal was a powerful sedative which, if taken in sufficiently large doses, would make a person unconscious, said James Edmett Giesen, a doctor, the next Crown witness. Nembutal caused amnesia and a large dose would blot out the memory for from six to eight hours.

A person would become drowsy almost immediately after taking nembutal, and within 10 or 15 minutes would be in a deep stupor, and would remain in that state for from four to six hours. Alcohol would tend to assist the effect. “An individual comes out of the effect of the drug over some hours, and during the process remains drowsy,” said witness. “In the case of the person in question, while coming out of the effect of the. drug, she could be roused and made to do something she was asked to do, but she would not co-operate properly either physically or mentally.” Barman’s Evidence Rudolph Le Seur, barman at the Hastings hotels recalled Andrew and the girl complainant coming to the bar. The girl was reluctant to have a drink, but after some discussion she said she would have a gin squash. “She said she did not really want a second drink, so I put just a trickle of gin in her glass and filled it with squasb and soda,” witness said. He did the same with her third and final drink. Cross-examined by Mr Stacey, witness was emphatic that the girl had had only three drinks in the hotel. Juliet Mary Nolan, aged 18, of Gisborne, said she was a school friend of the complainant. Witness said she had a brother named Gerald, aged 31, but not one named John. Witness said she had never seen accused before. Lola Priscilla Love, aged 12, of Waipawa, said that on March 19 she was camping with her parents near the Pakowhai bridge. Between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. she saw a truck in the camping ground, towards 5 pm. it left the area, going over the bridge towards Napier. The following day she found in the women’s dressing shed the bracelet and brooch identified previously in Court as belonging to the girl complainant. Unconscious in Truck Geoffrey Alan Rutter, a Transport Department traffic officer, said that on the afternoon of March 19, he saw a truck on the Pakowhai road. The driver, Andrew, was in bathing shorts. In the cab was a woman who appeared to be unconscious. At the time, witness thought she must be drunk. Mr Stacey: If you thought that there was some funny business—that this woman was being used somehow to her disadvantage—you would have interfered, wouldn’t you?—Yes. Percival James Clark, c£ief chemist at the Dominion Laboratory, said that on April 1 he identified the contents of a capsule given him by the police as a drug. He also tested the contents of several bottles. They contained whisky, gin and beer, and were free of any foreign substance.

The trial will continue tomorrow.