ALLEGED MURDER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 203, 21 May 1908, Page 2

ALLEGED MURDER.

THE CHARGE ACAiNST RICHARD CORNISH. A SERVANT'S EVIDENCE. (Dt TELEGIUriIT-T11E53 ASSOCIATION'.) Duncdin, May 20. Before Mr. IConrick, 5.M.,, Richard : Cornish, Into licensee of the Stirling Hotel, was to-day charged that he, did, ou May 1, kill and slay Catherine Elizabeth Cornish, his wife. Mr. Eraser appeared for the Crown, and Mr. Hanlon for tho defence. ; ' Mr. Fraser said that ho had an important statement from one of the servants. If His Worship credited the witness he must come to the inevitable conclusion that tho accused slow his wife.' It was true this unfortunate woman (the witness), was addicted to drink, and true that she was fined for drunkenness, but such as she was she was there in - a position to hear, and she would nay what she asserted to be true. The medical testimony corroborated her statements as far as it possibly could, and it would also be supported by cvidcnco of other witnesses. /' Elizabeth Bennett, : employed as cook at tho Stirling Hotel on the\late in question, said that deceased was addicted to drink" The barman, named Taylor, On April 30 slept in a back room at the back of Mrs': Cornish's room. Witness -did not go to slee'i that night until shutting ,up time, whiefi .was tho last occasion on which she heard Mrs. Cornish's voice. fitness' heard :no sounds until tho morning, when, in conse-' quonco of something the girl Knox said,', shi. listened and heard thumping in Mrs. • Cor- 1 nish's bedroom. Witness formed tho opinion that tho noise was caused by Cornish dumping his wife> up and down - tho; room. The girl Knox slept in tho next room to witness. Tho noise continued while she Tvas dressing in the room prior to going to the kitchen. The girl. Knox went downstairs wiith her, but went to the front of tho house,' witness going to the kitchen. . As soon as witness started - lighting the rarigo tho thumping ceased. 1 She then heard moaning from Mrs. Cornish's room. She took it to bo the moaning of deceased. The moaning started about 6.15, and continued to half-p'ast eleven. It was loud enough for the girl Knox to hear', but witness could not say whether she heard it. After 11.30 everything-was-.still.- .Ac-' cused camo into . the kitchen about a quar-tor-past two. He had an enamel dish in.his hand. Ho came for water, which lie got from a tap in the kitchen' range Ho sa'i'd; " Lizzie, I think tho missus is dead." Ho went into the bathroom with the .basin. Witness wont to tho! bedroom door.:; Slid saw deceased, and sent for. a doctor. She asked Cornish 'tp come to.the room and'put deceased on tho bed. Slio was lying on the floor of the bedroom, her feet being under tho bed and her. head towards the chest of drawers. The mat produced was in tile room. It' was under the body. Accused said: "I told her I would murder.her. I have done it." Witness said:' " Keen your own counsel." He : was t-hon cle-ining blood from' the deceased's '- face"' with a sponge. When she told him to keep his own counsel he replied: "Don't leave '.me now. Lizzie.'You are the only friend I have Eot." Witness re,plied: "No, I will'not." There was l a dark grey tweed skirt deceased had been, wearing lying on the floor at her feet.. It was not true, as stated by accused, that after they laid tho body on the bed witness took the clothing off the.body She never touched her save to lay her ,on the bed. She put bed clothos on it. Witness did not see any' blood in'tho bedroom or tho passage. She did not pay much attontion'. Sho' did not clear up -.any. blood, but the girl Knox did. Sho saw her'cleaning it up in tho sitting room, which "was just swamped with blood." Taylor went'for a-doctor, and whilo hp was away witness • was in -the-' kitchen .with' -Lily Knox.. .-Whcir witness; first went, upstairs, she noticed a coal scuttle-'in tho passage: It was upset.and the,coal was scattered about. ' :

•' .''Cross-examined,-,' witness:. ; said:'. t She : had been 'going under. the - name of Bennett. for the last six years. Mer maiden' namo was Elizabeth Beniiett-Mahony. She was married and divorced, tand afterwards took the ur-'ne ,of Beiihett. Sho told tho truth at the inquest held on Mrs. Cornish.' ,She' said there that she., heard Cornish .'thumping' his wife and the woman moaning. She could not have forgotten to. tell the Coroner that. Mr. Hanloni Did you swear at the inquest'that tho accused said to you: "I told her I would murder her and ! have done it?" j ;. - ■'' ~Witness: I was not asked the question. 'There, aro lots of things yet' I haven't been asked. 1 ' ■ • .- ' ' ' ' . 'Mr. ■ Hanlon:- Wore, other statements about thumping and-moaning asked you at the. inquest? - ' V . Witness: Yes. ' ; Further cross-examined, witness said she did, not'say at the-inquest that Cornish asked her not to leave him, and that she was the only friend lie had, because sho was not. asked it.; She ,did not go ; and make, inquiry when r,he heard the moaning ' because it was' not her. business to interfere with any.'other part of the house'but the kitchen; She .didn't interfere bocauso previously the '.deceased had told her never to"'interfere between her and her husband. Cornish gave information *to the ' police on Wednesday against her on suspicion of theft. Cornish made ayscarch/of -her.boxes andvtook>ou't a wrapper and pin'belonging to the deceased: She. took -the'wrapper to cut a pattern out of'it. It was not a. fact that Cornish discharged her. Witness had made no threats against the accused. Mr. Harilon: Didn't you..'go; to my office yesterday- and ask for £1, saying if you-did not get it you, would put the show awav? Witness: I did, but it was only for a lark. Re-oxair.ined: ...Witness said she did not mean that she said at the inquest she heard thumping • and moaning. She was not asked it. She had not spoken to-day,from' revenge. . -The doctors wore then ; examined, ■ afterwhich a remand was granted. . 1 ; THE DOCTOR'S EVIDENCE. ... ' . . (BY IBt.KORiPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION".) . ' Dunedin, May 20. The evidence given by Dr. Burnett, JLJalelutha, was to, the effect .'that there was a wound lira.- long on deceased's head. \ The: h<iad and face .presented a uniformly braised appearance. There was a bruiso oil the,brain, and' injury on tho right sideof the' scalp. , In his opinion, tho swelling on tho" face and the . black eyes were due to injuries, received within 24 hours before death. Ho thought •tho injury to the left side of tho brain'was possibly caused by a direct blow on the face, say with a fist. Witness thought the wound: on the right temple had been caused by contact with a sharp «)dge. Death seonied to havo been caused by compression of the brain, duo particularly to an injury to the left side. It was hot within the bounds of possibility that all the injuries could bo caused by a single blow. He could not tell whether deceased had been struck on the head or had fallen on a hard substance.'

Evidence was also given by Dr. Fitzgerald (Kaitangata). The Crown Prosecutor asked for a remand. .He said the police had found another witness last: night, a person who was believed t-o have spent tho: night of April 30 at the' Stirling Hotel. The casa : was adjourned to Duncdin on Wednesday next, on the understanding that accused would bo . remanded back to Balclutha on a suitable dato.

Tho, correctness of tho following incident is vouched for by a well-known settler in the Inglewood district (records ■ the "Taranaki Daily Nows"). A young man, 22 years of ago, who had lived practically the whole of his lifo ou a farm, came into the market town oil Christmas Eve, fabulously rich, for ho had been given a silver half-crown pieco "to spend as he liked." , And, in his best storo suit, lie wandered round and round tho shops all tho afternoon, but saw nothing that fitted in with his ideas. It was all- in vain that Father Christinas winked his alluring eye from the window of tho fancy goods shop, and the man from tho waybacks lot his . month water vainly-as lio pas'sod and repassed the confectionery 1 shops. At night he arrived home with half-a-crown's worth of turnip seed I Yet thoy My the colonial is kvuh with his cash. j