BURWOOD MURDER

Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1927, Page 3

BURWOOD MURDER

JUDCE SUMS UP. BOAKES ACQUITTED. By Telegraph—Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 23. His Honour, summing up, referred to the danger of bias in the minds ol jurymen from the unhealthy and mischievous publication ol a rumour and conjecture concerning the ease. The evidence, ho said was all circumstantial, and the jury must be satisfied that the facts were , inconsistent with any other rational conclusion that the person charged was the guilty person, before they could bring in a verdict of guilty. There was no evidence before the Court of intimacy between the prisoner and the woman Scarff, although counsel for the defence had conceded that there might have been intimacy.

11 is Honour reviewed at length the events between June Bth and June loth. “ You saw King, and heard his evidence,” said His Honour, “and you might conclude that you would not hang a cat on any evidence lie might give.” He warned the jury that if they believed he had lied in Court they must not assume therefore bespoke the truth on former occasions. The jury must close eyes and minds to any statement made by King, outside of the witness-box. They must make their minds blank to what h said in the Magistrate’s Court. The Judge, referring to the main proved facts of the case, said the jury would find it impossible to show that Boakes had a direct connection with these facts. There was nothing to justify the attaching of a sinister meaning to the interviews between Boakes and the girl, between June Stli and June lltli. He referred also to the evidence of the hoy Afugford, that the mail he saw at the scene of the murder was smaller than Boakes. There is no fact in connection with the spanner which identified it as having been in the possession of accused. “You must fill up some gaps in the evidence by reasonable inference or guesswork, before you are able to say there is any proved connection between accused and the military overcoats, t have been asked to rule that there is no evidence to go before you at all, and to make a direction to you to that effect. I confess I have had some hesitation in the matter, hut T have decided to leave it to you.”

The jury, after a retirement of less than an hour, returned a verdict of “ Not guilty.”

The Judge said he entirely approved of the jury’s verdict. On the minor charge, of having supplied a noxious drug, Boakes was remanded till November 30th. Bail was fixed at £IOO in his own recognis-