For Trial On Manslaughter Charge

Chronicle (Levin), 24 March 1949, Page 3

For Trial On Manslaughter Charge

Press Association)

(Per

BLENHEIM, Mareh 23. Albei't Ensor Thompson, aged 43, a cook, was committed for trial at the next Blenheim sessions of the Supreme Court at the eonelusion today of the lower court hearing of a charge of manslaughter. Bail was granted in the snm of £500 with surety of a like amount. The case arises out of the death of Caroline Jones, aged 57, following a knife wound in the abdomen received in the kitchen of the Terminus Hotel, Picton, on January 22. Thompson and deceased were employed as cook and ehef respeetively at the hotel. In the course of evidence by 23 Crown witnesses two mariied daughters of deceased vho agreed that accused and deceased were living together for about ten years gave evidence of continual and violent quarrels between them. Another woman who was working at the Lake Te Anau Hotel with Thompson and Jones said their quarrels linally caused her to leave the job. Constable Ma^ee stated when he interviewed accused some hours after deceased received the wound Thompson who appeared highly strung, was recovering from a drinking bont. He said: "I loved her. If she dies you can have me for murder. " The Magistrate (Mr. Maunsell) committed accused for trial., The Coroner (Mr. E. J. Hill Utting) in conjunction with tli£ Court hearing returned a verdict that deceased died of heart failure as the result of a diseased condition of the heart accelerated by strain following the infliction of a knife wound by Thompson and the subsequent operation.