MAGISTRATES’ COURTS.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1058, 17 November 1877, Page 2

MAGISTRATES’ COURTS.

CHRISTCHURCH. Saturday, November 13. (Before G-. L. Hellish, Esq., R.M.) Drunkenness. —Thomas Tanner was fined ss. Lunacy from Drunk.—Margaret Catchpole, suffering with lunacy from drink, was remanded for medical treatment. Assault.—William Petley was charged on remand with violently assaulting his wife. Hr Izard appeared for the accused. Constable Brad} 7 had been called on the Bth instant to go to the Kingston Hotel, Colombo road, and from what he heard there he m’estod the accused for violently assaulting ais wife with a tomahawk. The woman was aside the hotel, lying on a sofa with her icad bandaged up. She was pale, faintcoking, and had blood about her forehead, tlad her sent to the Hospital, and accused •onveyed to the watchhouse. There was hood outside in the street. Accused was in he bar when arrested. On the way to the ■ atohhouso accused said “ I believe she’s died,” and afterwards, “1 suppose I’ll bo ■mgod.” The accused was quite saber. Vitness got the tomahawk produced from teorge Herd, one of the witnesses in cage. Tiiefe -rcr© no swigs os itv*

Emily Petley, wife of the accused, recollected Massing down Colombo road, at the Kingston lotel, about six in the evening. Saw her husband standing at the door of the hotel. He asked her if she knew what he was going to do. He then gave her a knock on the head with the tomahawk, and she did not remember any more. She next found herself at the Hospital, where she was still a patient suffering from the effects of the injuries received. She gave her husband no cause for the assault. Her husband had procured a place for her at Mr Garland’s, at the White Horse, and she was living apart from him with his consent. She had seen her husband on the Sunday night previous, but did not speak. She had been living apart from her husband about seven months.—By Mr Izard : She believed that the house in which her husband had been living had been burnt, but she had never been accused by her husband of burning it. She might have accused him. She saw Mr Bowden on Sunday evening. He told her that her husband was going to _ get a divorce, for the purpose of getting married again, and she replied that she would give him a few pounds to pay the expenses. When she first went to the White Horse it was agreed between her and her husband that she should go home at night, but she refused after one occasion when he chased her with a knife. Her husband had never met her late at night walking with other men. —Mr Izard proceeded to put a number of questions with the view of showing that Mrs Petley had not been faithful to her husband.—With the concurrence of the Bench counsel put the question direct, and the witness repeatedly replied in the negative. Her clothing had most of it been destroyed in the fire, her husband having brought them back to her.—Henry Kneeshaw, barman, at the Kingston Hotel, Colombo road, had seen Petley there on the evening of the Bth, He asked for his wife, and said if she came down Colombo street again he “ would do for her.” On being asked what he meant, he said “ I mean to kill her.” Witness told him that he was mad and did not know what he was doing, and he replied “ I am as right as you or any other man.” He went on to say that his wife had burnt him out once, and was going to do so again, and added “ but before 12 o’clock to-morrow I’ll shoot her with this,” pointing to his breast. Petley also said that his wife had wronged him, and he thought by killing her he was doing justice to his country. On being talked to about the consequences that would follow, he said he had taken it well into consideration. He knew he would hang for it, but he was quite prepared, and as soon as he had done it he would give himself up to the police. On being told that he must be drunk, he said he was not. Shortly afterwards he looked out at the door, and said “ Oh, my God, she’s here.” Witness leapt over the bar, and saw the accused strike his wife,who was coming along,with hammer end of the tomahawk produced. A few minutes after accused entered the bar and said, “I told you I would do it.” Witness did not see where the accused got the tomahawk, but he kept twitching his coat up, and said he had been carrying it—(witness understood “ it ” to be a revolver) — about him for a week.—George Herd had seen the accused strike Mrs Petley on the head three times with the hammer end of the tomahawk produced. He caught Petley to restrain him, and afterwards went- to support the woman, who fell. He eventually handed the tomahawk over to the policeman. The woman was insensible when she fell, and blood was coming from a blow on the crown of her head. Petley did not appear to be tipsy at all.—By Mr Izard —When the accused was told that he had killed the woman he said he had intended to do so, and afterwards to give himself up to the police.— Floyd Collins, house surgeon at the Christchurch hospital, knew Mrs Petley, who had been received as a patient on the evening of the Bth instant. There were four scalp wounds on her head —three at the top and one at the back, each about an inch and a half long, cutting down to, but not injuring the bone, with the exception of one where the bone was slightly chipped. She is at present a patient, nearly recovered. When taken to the Hospital she was unconscious, which was as much due to drink as to the injury. The wounds were not of a dangerous character; it was not likely that they would have resulted fatally. Three of the wounds were incised wounds; one of them might have been done by the blunt end of the tomahawk produced. This was all the evidence for the prosecution.—Mr Izard proposed to call evidence as to the character borne by the accused, but his Worship remarked that the accused had clearly expressed his intention to kill his wife prior to the assault. There could be no doubt of that, and he would send the case for trial, not caring to take the responsibility of dealing with it summarily. The accused was then committed for trial at next Bitting of the Supreme Court. Bail was refused, the Court thinking it unsafe that such a man should be abroad.