JOHNSON MURDER

Hokitika Guardian, 6 August 1931, Page 5

JOHNSON MURDER

(lly Telegraph—Per Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August a

Continuing, accused said that he knew deceased as Miss Driscoll. She ’ | told him she was a well to do woman : ,frotn England, and she came from • j Wellington, and wa s engaged while | there. The first night he met her, she hold him that Mrs Keesjng, her landlady, was her aunt. After lie and she had been together awhile, he loved her, and she responded. When he gave her the £24, it was arranged that the fact should not be made known to I her family. She told him she was 1 - waiting for money from her family’s estate in Wellington and would repay him in three months. Accused said 1 that lie used to visit Mrs Johnson every night when she was sick. Sometimes he stayed until one o’clock. Fie had often been alone with her for periods up to two hours. He went to the Ellerslie races and Epsom trots with Mrs Johnson and her daughter as her tana (unmarried husband). The beginning of the trouble between them was at the trots. When she asked him to get a taxi, he told her he was broke. She said that all the lovers she had anything to do with had always taken her home in comfort. Next day, in a fit of depress aion, lie bought poison, contemplating suicide. That night aim told him she did not want him uny more. He asked why, She said because he showed her up at the trots, He was “full of jealousy and temper” and threatened suicide. She said she did not care, and anyway he would not he game. Then the thought of his child came to him, and he decided to defer the act. DOCTORS DIFFER. ABOUT RAMEIvA’S MENTAL STATE. , AUCKLAND, August 5. Cross-examined. Rameka said that he did not remember anything from the time that he was at Mrs Johnson’s door till he was in the hospital. Dr. 11. M. Beatie, for 29 years in charge of the Auckland Mental Hospital, said there was a probability of a minor epileptic condition in the accused, and a certain amount of mental stability. Called by the Crown, Dr H. M. Buchanan, Superintendent of the Auckland (Mental Hospital, said that, in his opinion, there was no justification for the theory that the accused was epileptic. He did not think that Rameka had the loss of memory at the time of the tragedy that he claimed to have had. In witness’s opinion the act committed in the bedroom was a conscious act. This concluded the evidence. The hearing Was adjourned, SUMMING UP. AUCKLAND, August 0. The trial of Geprge Rameka on a charge of. murdering. Mrs Gwendoline Johnson on June 24th. is approaching the end. This morning W. Noble, for the prisoner, and V. R. Meredith, Crown Prosecutor, addressed the jury and Justice Smith began summing up. He told the jury no distinction was to he drawn between Maoris and Europeans regarding the standard of conduct required when an insult was offered that was sufficient to deprive a person of self control As far a s punishment was concerned that was a matter in which racial considerations might he taken into account.

The Judge said a vital part of the ease was whether accused or deceased’s daughter, who was the only eyewitness, was telling the truth about what happened in the bedroom. Was the taunt even made to provoke accused Had he taken any poison before lie entered the room or did he take the bottle out of his pocket after he went in. Did he take the knife 'from his pocket inside the room? The summing up ended at 1.20 p.m.