WOMAN ACQUITTED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 21, 20 October 1943, Page 6

WOMAN ACQUITTED

Charge Of Murdering Newly-Born Child (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., October 19. In the Supreme Court, Emily ivy Elston, aged 27, a married woman, was charged with murdering her newly-born male child about September 3. She pleaded not guilty and wns acquitted ny tke Tlie Crown prosecutor, Mr. Cooper, said the evidence would show that the accused, who was the mother of live other children, murdered her newly-born infant by placing it in a suitcase and closing this down, knowing that the child would die of suffocation. Accused was deserted by her husband and later associated with a soldier, as lhe result of which she becamo pregnant. She had admitted to a doctor and a detective that the child was alive when she put. it in a sheet, aud blanket, and that she knew when she put it in the suitcase that it would not live. Medical evidence was that the. chilli had breathed and died of asphyxia out it was possible that it was dead befor. being put in the suitcase. . Mr. Justice Blair, speaking to the jury, said : “I think I might add that I agree with your verdict..'’