GUILTY OF MURDER

Chronicle (Levin), 8 May 1948, Page 5

GUILTY OF MURDER

Press .Association)-

Man Gets Eife For Kiffing ( J Of Sfepseft •

(Per

CHRISTCHURCH, May f. ■ i William Erie Cooper, aged 43, a .nurseryman, was. foundi' gualty by- ai jurv in the >Supreme Coiu't today of murdering- Leslie James Boswell, • his stepson, aged three-. years. an.d -mmtl nronths,, at Sumner oh Feteruary He* , was sentenced by Mr. Jusfice Fleming ' to, imprisonment for life. ' His . Honour •commented that Cooper- had had a fair - trial in which he had been ably def ended by counsek. The Judge thanked the jury and exeused them from jury ser- 1 vice for three years. if th.ey wished. _ : "I desire to thauk Senior Detective ' Brady and the ofheers- of . both the un-i- jform and detective* , braarches who. 1 assisted hiin in his inquiries into, th-isA case for the prom.pt way in. whfch- they r discovered the- mhrderer, said his 1 Honour. The police ' got many- hard ; knocks, he continued. On the one hand , they were restrained by the courts and - On the other tliey were goaded by the \ pu-blic when it was thought they were j no-t getting results. He thoug'ht it proper they should get commend.atiou when, they did such good work,.. F.or the Crown, Afr. A. W. Brown inaddressing tlie jury said that all, possi--bilities other than that the boy was murdered could be excluded, the only qnestion remainin'g beiug whetlier Cooper conimitted the eri-me. Afr. Brown submitted that no other explanation fitted the facts. Witnesses saw Cooper going up the track with the child and 20- minutes later saw liiafireturning. Later he had been wasliing his hands and the GrGwn. submitted; that Cooper was then wasliing off the-bl-oodstai-ns. It was nearly an hour later that Cooper boarded a tram at Sumner for 'the citv. It was reasonable to inf'er that during that time Cooper was wasliing stains from his clothing in sea water. For the defence, Air. J. K. Afoloney submitted there was n,o, evidenee to pin the crime on Cooper." The bloodstains on Cooper 's elot-hing could have* been animal 1)1, ood. They cguld not be id-enti-fied as human. and the jury should remember tliat Cooper worked in freezing works where an.im.al blood was about.