THE LATE STABBING CASE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 961, 25 July 1877, Page 2

THE LATE STABBING CASE.

THE ADJOURNED INQUEST. The adjourned inquest on the body of Thomas Powell was resumed at 2 p.m., at the Hospital, before J. W. S. Coward, Esq. and the jury already mentioned. Mr Joynt—l appear, your Worship, to watch the case on behalf of the accused. The Coroner—There is no one accused at present. Mr Joynt—l gathered from the reports in the papers that there was some imputation against some persons present. The Coroner —Well, Mr Joynt, you appear on behalf of Kehde. Mr Joynt—Yes, sir, and for Elizabeth Lynch also. The following evidence was then taken : Harry Feast —I am Detective Inspector in Christchurch. From what I beard I came on Sunday morning last to the Hospital. I saw Powell in bed at the Hospital. Ho told me Mr Joynt—l object to such evidence being led unless it was taken before a magistrate as a dying declaration. The Coroner —I think I shall take the Inspector’s evidence for what it is worth. Mr Joynt—But your Worship, does not this Court recognise the ordinary rules governing evidence. It is one of the fundamental rules of evidence that no statement shall be received which is likely to criminate anyone except in the presence of the accused. The Coroner —I grant you that that is the rule ; but I shall take the evidence of the inspector for what it is worth. Mr Joynt—-But your Worship will see that this evidence will likely go forward to the Supreme Court. The Coroner—Well, I shall take it. Mr Joynt—Very good, your Worship, but I object. Inspector Feast —The deceased told me he met a woman at some hotel north of the Central, and went with her through the town to Barrett’s Hotel. He then said he went to a house with the woman where there was a fire and no light. I then left him, as he said he was in so much pain that it tormented him to speak. I saw him again between 10 and 11 a.m., and he then described the woman as fair, stout, and with her front teeth out in the upper jaw. He said she wore a drab waterproof cloak. He said when she first met him she told him she lived in Manchester street. He said after getting into the house he was unable to say what street it was in. The deceased said he went to the house with the woman where she said she lived, but was unable to say where it was; he believed it was towards the South Belt. He said after being in the house some little time a man either came in while he was there, or was in the house, and asked him what he was doing there. He said that he was standing outside afterwards, and that the woman had been crying, or that there was some row inside, and the man rushed out of the house and stabbed him. Deceased said he wrested the weapon away from the man, and appealed to some man that was passing on the footpath and begged him to take charge of him as he was stabbed. He said the man he appealed to ran away, through he fence, and left him standing there. Deceased said “ Wasn’t he a coward ?” He then staggered on till near Barrett’s, where he fainted, and was picked up by Police-Constable Rouse. Deceased told me the man who stabbed him had big whiskers. The deceased then begged me to leave him, as he was so exhausted. I promised to be up again, and when I called again they were just bringing him out dead. I took charge of the clothes produced. [The clothes worn by deceased on the night of the stabbing produced.] I found a hole through the waistband of the vest, and also through the trousers, and a quantity of blood inside the trousers, just whore the cut is. I examined the body as soon as it. was put into the morgue, and saw a wound on the body that would be immediately under the cut if anybody was wearing the clothes produced. I went that evening between 8 and If with Detective Walker to a house in St. Asaph street. I knocked some time, but was unable to got the door opened. I could see by the moonlight that the catch of. the front window was off. I lifted the window up and pulled the blind on one side. I then saw the two persons in custody in bed partially dressed. Either the woman or the man asked what I wanted. I think it was Lynch. I told them it was the police, and to get up and open the door. The woman, I think, opened the door, and detective Walker and myself went in. I told both accused that there had been a row in the house the night before, and that I had come to arrest them both on a charge of murder of the man who had been there. Kehde said “Is be hurt?” and I said “Why, he’s dead.” Kehde then sard “Oh, I was afraid I had hurt hhu/’ wd the

woman then went off—or pretended to go off —in a swoon. The two accused sat for some time in each other’s arms on the side of the bed. After a few minutes I told them to dress, as they would have to go with me. Kehde said, “ Oh, my God, 1 was afraid of this ; I was afraid I had hurt him.” They were then dressing, and Kehde commenced to tell me all about it. I then asked him if he thoroughly understood what he was talking about. I cautioned him as to the nature of anything he might say to me. I asked him if he understood who he was talking to when he talked to me. I cautioned him that what he said might be used against him. The woman had fallen down in a faint, and he told her to get up, the law must take it course. He then said that the deceased had come to his house the night before ; that he had put him out, and locked the woman inside the house. He went up to the Borough Hotel and had a drink, and on coming hack again he found the deceased again in the house. He put him out of the house once more. After that the deceased came and knocked at the door, and was trying to get in. Kehde said he then picked up a tool, which he said was lying on the table in the front room, and went to the front door. He said he saw no wound ; that he did not know w r hat he did, but that he had run it into the man. Kehde said he didn’t think it was so bad, but he was afraid he had hurt him, and he had been lying in bed all that day. They had nothing to eat all day but their tea that night. He said afterwards, when the woman began to relate the same tale as Kehde had told me, that when he went out he believed he had slipped and fallen. The woman was correcting him in different ways as he told the story. As we were leaving the house to go to the depot Kehde said he believed as he was going out of the front door with the tool in his hand he slipped, and fell. The woman was all the time saying she did not want the deceased there, and keeping on about her friends, and so on. She wished me to understand that it was not at her instigation that the deceased was there. Kehde repeated the same story, going from St. Asaph street to the depot. The woman stated the same to me as her evidence on the former inquiry. Mr Joynt declined to ask the witness any questions. Mr Joynt —1 have not heard you read any memorandum of my objections to Powell’s evidence being taken. The Coroner—l will do so now, but I would point out to you Mr Joynt that I take all sorts of gossip here. Mr Joynt—All kinds of gossip ? The Coroner —Yes, if it helps to elucidate facts. Mr Joynt—But, your Worship, I will just call your attention to the fact that the evidence will be the same as that going before the Grand Jury, and as this evidence was given in the absence of the accused persons, it is only hearsay and not admissible. The Coroner —Well, Mr Joynt, I will take a note of your objection. It will be for the Supreme Court to take the evidence or reject it. Mr Joynt—Precisely so. Mr Feast —I desire to state, after what has taken place, that I warned the deceased when he was telling me this that it was a serious matter, and hinted that lie might die. Mr -loynt—That won’t help the evidence a bit.

The Coroner then took a note of Mr Joynt’s objection to the evidence given by Inspector Foust as to what was told him by deceased. Henry Joseph Milsom—The persons in custody live next door but one to me. I loft Barrett’s Hotel on Saturday night just as the hotel was being shut up—about eleven o’clock—as I came up the footpath I saw a man and woman strugging on the footpath opposite Kchde’s house —in front of it. I saw the man break away from the woman and pass me before 1 came to them. When I came to the woman she was crying and said her husband had left her. She asked me what she should do. I told her the best thing she could do was to go inside and he would come back soon. I cannot swear that the man I saw was Kehde; he passed me too rapidly. The woman was intoxicated, and I led her to the door and opened it. I then saw a man inside. I said “ If that’s what’s the matter I’m going,” and turned away. After that —about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour —I heard a woman screaming. I was then in my own house. I opened the front door and knocked at the next door to me, between my house and Kchde’s. Mr Heslop lives there,and Mrs Heslop said her husband was not at home. Whilst I was knocking at Heslop’s house, I saw a man at Kehde’s house kicking at the door and knocking at the windows. Ido not know the man, nor can I sav how he was dressed, but I think he had a hat on like that produced, "and clothes of the description produced. While he was knocking he was calling out, “ Let me in Charley; there’s no harm done ; I’ll give you my word there’s no harm done.” I spoke to him and told him I thought he had better clear out, and threatened to fetch the police if he did not. At that time the woman was screaming and calling out more or less. The man did not answer me, and I went into my own house again. I saw Kehde soon after this. The woman came to my back door soon after I went in. She begged me to come to her husband. She said he did not know what he was doing, and lie did not know what he had done. I told her it served her right all she got, and I would not interfere with it all. She went away and Kehde came. He made some remark about the woman. He said she was a very good woman if she kept away from drink, but he did not know what to do with her. He then said he hoped he had not injured the man. I said “ I suppose you haven’t hurt him very much, where is he ? ” Ho said, “He’s gone away.” I said, “ Oh, well you can’t have hurt him very much then.’'’ Kehde then went away.

By Inspector Feast —At the time I saw the man knocking at Ivehde’s door I imagined the woman was being beaten. She screamed as if she was being punished. Kehde had been living in the house seven or eight months. I never heard a row there before.

By the Jury—Kehde appeared to be sober. The man who was knocking at Kehde’s house appeared to be intoxicated. By Mr Joynt —The man who was inside the house when Elizabeth Lynch opened the door was a tall man. It was not Kehde. It was a bigger built man. By the Jury —I did Dot know the man who was standing'with the woman on the footpath. He was a dark man, and bigger than Kehde.

James McCracken—l reside in St. Asaph street at Mrs Fawcett’s boarding-house, next door to the one occupied by Kehde and the woman Byuch, X recollect Saturday night

from Manchester street towards Madras street. As I passed Kehde’s house I saw a man and woman standing on the side-wait. I passed between them. They were apparently in conversation at the time. The man followed me, and said he wanted to tell me something. I would not listen to him, thinking there was nothing th matter with him. He had a weapon in his hand. The one produced is something like it. I could not say exactly, because I hurried away from him. I saw no more of him afterwards. I believe he went towards Barrett’s Hotel. I went through the gate in the fence to the house I was living in. I could not say how the man was dressed. I identify the man now in Court as the one I saw with the man on the footpath in front of Kehde’s house. I hurried on because I had heard rows there before, and did not wish to mix myself up with them. William Fawcett —I live in St. Asaph street. I was at Barrett’s Hotel about 10.30 p.m. on Saturday last. I saw Elizabeth Lynch there. She was dressed as she is now. She was in company with a tall man, wearing a hat and clothes something similar to those produced. The woman seemed to be drinking with three or four others. I know Kehdc ; I cannot say whether he was in the hotel on that night. I saw the woman leave. The tall man I have spoken of left with her. The woman went out of the door first, and held the door open for the man to follow, I saw nothing of them afterwards. By Mr Joynt—The man and the woman were there when I came in. I cannot say whether the man could have come in after I saw the woman first. I did not see the man with the woman when I saw her first. I did not see him come into the room. I saw the woman first from the bar, and the man and the woman were in the next room to the bar. I then went into the room, and then I saw them together. He might have been there all the time. It is not necessary to pass through the bar to get into the room. You can get into it Horn the street. By the Jury—l left the hotel, about eleven, and went home. I heard a noise like a woman crying, and I went out. I heard a woman asking to be let in to Kehde’s house. She was at the back door. Some one opened the door and let her in. I heard no further noise during that night. The accused, Kehde, is known generally as Charley ; the woman who was outside the back door called him Charley, I think. This concluded the evidence, and the jury, after some deliberation, returned a verdict of “ Wilful Murder against Carl Kehde.”