MAORI MOTHER SENT FOR TRIAL ON CHARGE OF MURDERING DAUGHTER

Grey River Argus, 27 March 1948, Page 4

MAORI MOTHER SENT FOR TRIAL ON CHARGE OF MURDERING DAUGHTER

P.A OHAKUNE, March 26 The hearing of the charge of murdering her four and a half-year-old daughter, Gale Kingi, at Makarunui, near Ohakune, laid against Mrs Margaret Mary Theresa Loo, a 26 yeaiold Maori woman, was completed - m Ohakune Court before Messrs H. F. L. Delamar and W. H. Sandford, Justices of Peace. She pleaded not guilty. She was committed to the Wanganui Supreme Court on May 10 for trial. The Crown Prosecutor was Mr N. R. Bain (Wanganui), and counsel for defence was Mr G. H. R. Skelton (Auckland).

ACCUSED MAKES A STATEMENT She told the gin Gale to take her' rocking horse outside, stated Mrs Loo in a statement before the district coroner, Mr W. H. Sandford, and produced in the court by Constable John Haldane Beaton, of Raetihi. She caught a glimpse of the child as she went through the back door. The child must have slipped on the steps. She found the child on her back, with the rocking horse on top of her'face. She was bleeding at the mouth, and seemed to be unconscious.

On February 27 he interviewed Mrs Loo, at Aucxland, stated Malcolm John Ross, a detective sergeant, stationed at Auckland. After he had typed two and a half pages of a statement, Mrs Loo said that what she had told him was a lot of lies. She-want-ed to tell the truth. She then, admitted causing injuries to the child. When warned that she might be charged with murder, Mrs Loo replied; “1 want to tell you just what happened to Gale that day.” Witness said that in the first’ statement made to him (Ross), Mr Loo reiterated her story that a fall while carrying the rocking horse had caused the injuries. “Gale wa's a terrible girl to cry in the mornings,” said Mrs Loo in her second statement on December 3. She had cried in the early morning and again later, probably because she was fretting for Mrs Loo’s husband, who was in Auckland. At about 10 a.m. Gale was sitting in a chair crying. She told her to stop, and when she did not, she (Mrs Loo) put her right hand on her forehead and pushed the child’s head hard against the bars of the chair: She said “At that time I did not care what happened to her.” The child crumpled and slipped towards the floor but she (Mrs Loo) caught her in herarms beiore she hit the floor. Mrs Loo etztinued in her statement that she was frightened, but she decided to wait until 4 p.m. before calling a doctor. Her statement said that, at sjoout 2 p.m. she took the other two children to visit neighbours, leaving Gale on the bed. Although worried about the child, she thought that she would be alright. Mrs Loo had admitted lying to the O’Connors and to Dr L. E. Jordan about the incident. Her son, Robert, was in the kitchen at the time of the accident, and she told him not to tell anybody what had happened; if he did she would go to gaol. She said: “Gale did not like me very much, and about a year ago I started not to like her very much.” She dened hitting the child with a piece of wood or anything hard. On the application of her counsel, Mrs Loo was admitted to custody at Mount Eden gaol, Auckland.