ATTEMPTED MURDER OF WIFE ALLEGED

Chronicle (Levin), 10 April 1946, Page 3

ATTEMPTED MURDER OF WIFE ALLEGED

- Press Association

MAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL

Bv Telearavh-

CHRISTCHURCH, April 9. Giving evidence in ■ tlie trial of Francis Noel Harlcness, a naval rating, aged 20, on a cliargo of having attempted to mur'dori liis wif'e, Joyce Alison Harlcness, at Christeliurek on Eebruary 14, Dr. A. S. Lambort said that he had attended Mrs. Harlcness at tlie Christchurch Hospital. An X-ray examinatiop had shown that a bullet was lodged in the body of the iirst lumbar vertebra. It had damaged the spinal cord. It had been found impraeticable to reniove the bullet, he added. Witness said that Mrs. Harlcness V mental condition had subsequently deteriorated, and she had been admitted to the Sunnyside Mental Hospital on March 22. To Mr. J. K. Moloney, who represented Harlcness, Dr. Eambert said that there was a possibility of Mrs. Harlcness 's recoverv. Constable Scannell said he had stopped Harlcness on his cycle near the Durham Street railway crossing; Harlcness said to him, "Whp are you?" "I-told him," said witness. "He tlien told me he was the man I was loolcing for." I asked him what the trduble was and, after some hesitation, he said that he had shot his wife. I asked him where the lirearm was that he had used. He put his liand inside his shirt. So did 1 and I found an automatic pistol. It had four bullets in the magazine and oue in the chamber. " Detective-Sergeant Brady produced a statemeut which, he said, had been made by Harlcness. Jn it Harlcness said that he was a submarine stolcer for some time during tlie war. After his marriago in May, 1914, he had lived with his wife for four days before leaving for England ou active service. They were then ou the best of terms. His wife had told him that she had been out before with American servicemen a few tiines, continued the statemeut. His wife had not met him on his returu to New Zealand and he Iirst saw hor aliout a week later. She had told him that she hated the sight of him, said Harlcness. They had not lived together as man and wife since his return to Nevv Zealand. Describing what liappened ou Eebruary 14, Harlcness said that his wife had been jeering at him while they were wallcing away from the house towards Colombo Street. "I -was carrying a German pistol inside my shirt. It was loaded. I seemed to lose my liead. I took the pistol out. My wife was on the right of me and I shot her in the baclc, though all I had in mind was to draw the pistol and frighten her." Harlcness added that he had had about 16 drinlcs of beer and wine that day. No witnesses were called for the defence and Harlcness was committed to the Suprenie Court for trial.