Mother Sent For Trial On Murder Charge

Chronicle (Levin), 27 March 1948, Page 6

Mother Sent For Trial On Murder Charge

^ . > 'OHAKUNE, March 25.. The hearing of vthe charge of murderipg her 4-i-year-old daughter, Gaie Kingi, at Makarunui, near Ohakune, laid against Margaret Mary Theresa Loo, a 26-year-old Maori woman, was eompleted in the OhakuneNC'ourt before Messrs. H. F. L. 'Belamar- and W. H. Sandford, Justiees of the Peace,. yesterday. * She pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Wanganui Supreme Court on May 10 for trial. The Crowu Prosecutor was Mr. N. E. Bain, Wanganui, and counsel for the defence was Mr. G-. H. E. Skelton, Auckland. She told Gale to take her roekin'g horse outside, stated aceused in-a statemenfmade before tlie- District .Ooroner (Mr. W. H. Sandford)" "and produced in court by Constable John Haldane Beaton, Eaetihi. She caught a glimpse of the child as she went through the baek do'or. She must have siipped, on the steps. She fouhd the child on her back with the roekinghorse pn top ot her f aee. , She was bleeding at the mouth and seemed uneonscious. ^ On Eebruary 27 he interviewed aceused at Auckland, stated Malcolm John Eoss, detective-sergeant stationed at Auckland. After he had typed two and a half pages of a statement, the accused Loo said what she had told hiin was a lot of lies. . She wanted to tell thfe truth. She. then admitted causing injuries to the child, and when warned that she miglit be charged'with murder, replied: "I want to tell you just what happened to Gale that day." In the first statement made to Dqtee-tive-Sergeant Eoss, Loo reiterated her story that the. fall, while carrying the roekinghorse, had caused the injuries. "Gale was a terrible girl to cry in the niornings, " said Loo in her seeond statement. On December 3 she cried in the early morning and ag'ain later, probably because she was fretting for Loo}s lvusband who was in Auckland. At about 10 a,m. Gale was sitting in a chair erying. She told her to stoyi, -and when' she ditf not Loo put her right hand on her forehead and pushed the child 's head Jiard against the bars oithe chair. '''At tlie time I did not care what . happened to her." The child crumplcd and siipped- towards the floor, but Loo caught her in her, arms before •she hit the floor. Loo was frightened but decided to wait until 4 p.m. bel'ore calling a doctor, continued- Loo's statement. About 2 p.m. she took tlie other two children to .visit the neighbours, leaving Gale on the bed. Although worried about the child she thought she would be al right. Loo admitted lying to the O'Connors and Dr. L. E. Jordan about the incident. Her son Eobert was iu the kitchen at the timo of the accident and she told him not to tell anybody what had happened: if he did she would go to gaol. "Gale did not like me verv much, and about a year ago I started not to like her vcry • miich." She denied hitting the child with a piece of wood or anything'hard. On the application of her counsel she was admitted to custody at Mount Edeu gaol, Auckland.