BAYLY TRIAL

Evening Star, Issue 21746, 14 June 1934, Page 8

BAYLY TRIAL

GROWN CASE SHOULD END SATURDAY THE TEST SHOTS [P*r United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, Juno 14. The examination of Senior-sergeant E. W. Dinnie was continued when the hearing of the Ruawaro murder charges was resumed in the Supreme Court this morning. Dinnie is the sixty-fifth witness called by the Crown, whose case is expected to finish on Saturday. Dinnie will be followed by Professor F. P. Worley, Dr D. Brown, of the Auckland University College, and also by several police officers who fired test cartridges from a number of pea rifles. Public interest is still being well maintained in the case.

Re-examined by Mr Meredith, Dinnie described how the burring of the edge of the knife would occur and the effect of this burring when • a wood surface was cut. During his explanation .Dinnie used _ a cardboard blade to emphasise his arguments. Whether the knife left a groove or a ridge on the wood depended on which side of the knife was applied to the wood; also on the manner in which the edge was burred. “In my opinion there are sufficient characteristics still visible on the knife to indicate that in all probability that was the knife which made the two wood cuts,” declared Dinnie. ‘‘You say the knife has been sharpened?” asked His Honour.

“ The knife, in my opinion, has been sharpened; also it has been damaged since the cuts were made, but I contend that sufficient characteristics are still distinguishable,” replied Dinnie, whp added that the steel had been placed in two positions against the wood after the cuts had been made. Mr Meredith then intimated that he would call formal evidence regarding the firing of sixty test shells. Detective Sneddon, who was recalled, described the firing tests performed at Auckland

Further _ firing tests were described by Detective P. J. Nalder, who detailed the shots he had fired at Ruawafo from settlers’ rifles. He produced the cartridge cases discharged from each gun. In reply to Mr Northcroft, witness said he had made a house-to-house canvass to trace rifles in the Ruawaro district. He had located ten in all. The police used the Arms Register, but he could not say how many settlers had rifles not shown on the register. In all twenty-one weapons had been located. “Of those eleven were Winchesters? ” asked Mr Northcroft. Witness said he did not know the proportion of Winchesters. After counsel had read a list of the rifles fired, witness agreed that eleven of that brand had been discovered.

Detective T. W. Allsopp (recalled) said he also made similar inquiries among the settlers of Huntly and Ruawaro. He had discharged eleven test shots from different rifles, which, with the ten fired by Nalder, gave a total of twenty-one_ test shells from the district, which witness took to Wellington. To Mr Northcroft, witness said that of the rifles he tested, six were Winchesters. These were owned at distances of two to ten miles from Lakey’s. The police worked in a radius of ten to twelve miles. In that area there were about 200 householders, and all the houses were visited. THE RIDGES AND THE KNIFE,

Constable T. D. Elms (Huntly) gave formal evidence of handling tho test shells, and similar testimony was given by Constable D. Robertson (Huntly), who also fired test shells from settlers’ rifles.

Dr Denis Brown, lecturer on physics at Auckland University College, said he inspected a piece of timber from Lakey’s shed and the knife produced, which he micro-photographed. Witness went on December 13 to Unaware and visited Bayly’s cowshed, where ho saw the upright produced, which he removed from the shed. A considerable area of the surface had been shaved off 2ft from the floor. The wood appeared to have been rubbed over with oil or grease. “ I formed the opinion that the cuts on both pieces of wood were fairly recent,” declared Dr Brown, who said the cut timber from the separator room showed no sign of dust. He micro-photographed portion of the cut surface. Witness then produced a series of photographs of both pieces of wood. One photograph was made with a magnification of diameters. It showed a series of ridges left on the wood which, in witness’s opinion, were caused by turns in the edge of the knife. The second photograph on the same scale showed marks on the cut surface of the second piece of wood. All the lines shown in this photograph comprised grooves in the wood, all cf which were made at the same time by the same stroke of _ the implement. They were not successive scratches. In his opinion notches on the edge of the knife could make the grooves if the burr were downward on the blade, “ 1 compared the two photographs to see if there was similarity in the grouping of the marks,” continued Dr Brown. “I first superimposed one photograph on the other, but found that the lines on one were on too small a scale to fit the lines on the other. I account for this by the angle at which the knife was held when the cuts were made. I verified this by subsequent experiment.” Witness demonstrated with a cardboard knife and a sheet of paper how notches could leave marks closer together if the knife were drawn across at an angle. Witness then photographed the second timber on the larger scale of 10.6 magnifications. When this was placed in conjunction with the other photograph witness found definite correspondence grouping. “ I decided that the similarity of grouping was so great that it was very unlikely for it to happen by accident,” proceeded Dr Brown. “ I came to the definite conclusion that the same instrument was responsible for both cuts. It is possible to calculatp the chances of agreement in grouping occurring accidentally. In my opinion agreement by accident woidd not happen more than once in a million times. This is based not so much on agreement in the lines, but on disagreements in the lines.” Witness then made a microphotograph of 8J magnifications of portion of the knife blade. On comparison with other photographs he found very definite similarities between the notches on the knife and the marks on the wood, although the correspondence was not so close as between the two pieces of wood. If the knife had an unsymmetrical notch the middle of the notch would change as if the knife-edge sharpened away. At the request of Mr Meredith Dr

Brown demonstrated his argument with a blackboard drawing. “I concluded that the knife was consistent with having made those marks, although it was quite incapable of making those manes when it came to me,” continued Dr Brown. “ You are not in a position to say that these marks were made by this knife?” asked His Honour.^ “It is impossible to say it did, but the knife is consistent with having made the marks,” replied Dr Brown, who then produced microphotographs of Bayly’s steel and the detailed formation lines .on the tip of the steel on the photograph of the cut on the timber of Lakey’s shed. There were two groups of lines visible,, at the top and bottom corners. Witness photographed one group separately. When the photographs were superimposed the similarity of the ridges on the steel to parallel lines on the wood could bo seen. “ I formed the opinion that the marks on the wood had been made by this steel, or steel of a similar type,” declared Dr Brown, who added that the marks indicated that they had been made by a rounded instrument pressed on the wood. Witness had fired cartridges from both the Winchester and Spandau pea rifles produced, using IC.I ammunition. He retained the cartridges, while he had also received a pea rifle cartridge from Detective Sneddon.