Sent For Trial On Charge Of Manslaughter

Chronicle (Levin), 12 August 1948, Page 6

Sent For Trial On Charge Of Manslaughter

Press Association)

(Per

WELLINGTON, Aug. 11. Bertrand Alexander, a painter, aged 25, was charged in the Magistrate's C'ourt today. that on December 24, 1947, he killed Eraneis Pliillip Minogue by atriking him, thereby coinmitting manslaughter. Alexander pleaded not guilty and was eommitted to the Supreme Court for trial by Mr. Lee, S.M. JBaM was allowed. Senior Deteetive E. H. Compton co.iducted the case 'for the police and M>*. Ii. Hardie Boys, witli liim Mr..F. Ji. Walker, appeared for Alexander. Detective-Sergeant A. I. Knapp read a statement which he said he had takea from aceused on July, 14: In it Alexander stated that on Ohristmas Eve, he liad been in a light in Dixon Etreet wuh a man over some beer. The light had been stopped by a constable. Alexander sald he, had left the man wliom he had fought and .joined a group of men who were drinking. He said that another man ealled him by an insulting nanre and he had struek this man a blow on the left cheek and knoeked him out. He and liis friend had carried th'e man aeross to the allevway between th--Opera House and Plaza Tlieatre. They had taken nothing from him. He first realised that the man the police want'el in conneetion with the death of Minogue niight be himself, when he read the account of the inquest. Cross-examined by Mr. Boys, witness agreed tliat Minogue came into Alexander 's statement only when Minogue had called Alexander names. • Frederick Bipos said in evidence that he had heard Minogue falling ,to tlic ground in Dixon Street after he had passed a scuffle in which deceased and another man were involved. Witness then saw Minogue lying on the ground. He appeared to be uuconscious. Wi" ness spoke to the man wliom he thought had hit Minogue and. that man then attended to IMinogue. Asked by Mr. Compton if he eonld identify that man in Court, witness said he was not 101) per cent. sure. Helen Fraueis Wipos, svife of the previous witness, corroborated the. evidence of her husbaud. She said that at a' police identification parade of 14 men ' on July 14, she had identified oue man wlio-m she thought had been the ag-

gressor in the scuffle. That man was accused. Mr. Hardie Boys contended that a prima faeie case had not .been made out by the police. He said that ti": doetors agreed that the blow that killed Minogue w.as a blow on the temple and not oue 011 the left side the jaw. Witnesses had agreed that Minogue had blood on the side of the nioutli or marks on the side of liis inouth before Alexander struck Minogue. 'Oue witness had actually seen Alexander strike Minogue witli liis list on the left side of tlie jaw. That had not been tho blow that killed Minogue.