ALLEGED MURDER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 160, 24 July 1937, Page 7

ALLEGED MURDER

— Press Association.)

No Trial Because Accused Insane

(By Telegraph

AUCKLAND, Last Night. Mndieal evidence only was called in the Supreme Court this morning when William Gage-Brown, aged 70, was placed in the dock charged with the murder of his wife, Mary Elizabeth Gage-Brown, at her home in Epsom on. April 5. Evidence had been given in the Magistrate's Court, when accused was committed for trial, that accused had attacked his wife in the bedroom of her home, and with a four-pound weight had infiieted injuries to her head, from which she died the iollowing day. Wheh accused was placed in the dock, Mr. A. H. Johnston, K.C., for accused, applied under the provisions of Section 32 of the Mental Defectives Act for a jury to be empannelled to try as to whether accused was fit to plead. His Honour: The cixeumstances of the case, as set out in the aepositions, imply that is a very necessary course. Mr. Hubble (for the Crown) : I agree. ' Dr. Henry Meredith Buehanan, medigal superintendent at the Auckland Mental Hospital, said accused was at present an inmate of tho institutioxi. Witness had had him under observation since April last, and his mental eondition to-day was such that he could not plead or understand the proceedings. He would be utterly incapable of assisting his counsel, Dr. Joseph Mackay, senior assistant medical officer at the Mental Hospital, agreed with the evidence given by Dr. Buehanan. " Mr. Johnstone said that, by a humane provision of the law, no-one oould be placed upon his trial unless he fully understood what he was being tried for, The evidence of the doctors was that accused 's mental eondition was such that he could not understand. His Honour said the jury had to decide whether accused was insane, so that he could not plead to the indictment. » Without leaving the box, the jury found that accused was not fit to plead. tiis Honour then ordered accused to be placed in the custody of the Auckland Mental Hospital until the pleasure of the Minister of Justice is known.