COATS’ TRIAL

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1931, Page 5

COATS’ TRIAL

ACCUSED’S STATEMENT. [By Telegraph, Per Press Association.; WELLINGTON, November 6. At the trial of Coats, Detective W. R. Murray was the first witness after lunch. He said that he interviewed Coats on July 6. Witness to.d Coats that it was ’believed .that he had made an illegal operation on Phyllis Symons. ’Coats then volunteered a statement. -it this stage, counsel ror die defence objected to the statement anu before it was read, lie cross-exammeu the witness as’ to the method of taking the statement.

Witness said that he commenced to interview the accused shortly after a a.m., and he was cnarged with the alleged offence about 12.15 a.m. on the next day; Coats, he said, was not being interviewed all the time. Between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. he was in the detective office, where he was sitting and .smoking. DETECTIVE’S ACCOUNT. WELLINGTON, November 6. At the Coats trial, Detective Murray told His Honour that it was customary to ask a person to come to the Detectice Office and to remain there in order that his statement coin'd be checked, life explained that, after all information had been swfern, the matter had to proceed through the usual channels, He 'said the lateness of the charge in the case of Coats was due to the fact that he experienced some difficulty at that time of night in obtaining the services of a Justice of the Peace, before whom the information could be sworn. STATEMENT A DMITTED. An adjournment was taken at- this stage for the purpose of argument in the chambers as to the admissibility of Coats's statement to Detective Murray. His Honour said, on resumption in open Court, that he had decided that the statements were admissible. Counsel for the accused asked that his objection to the admission of the statement should be noted. Detective .Murray told the Crown Prosecutor that at the time of the first statement, in the morning, he had only Mr Symons’ complaint about tire girl being missing, and a letter of the girl’s which had been found. COAT’S ACCOUNT. In this first statement, Coats said that he had got to know the girl in August and September, and about a month later had started to keep company with her. He used to go to the pictures with her, meeting her by appoi ntmeiit, wjrjcli.., t^p,. arranged in letters. They used to write to each other. These tetters, Coats supposed, could properly be referred to as lovers’ tetters, B<wn after 'they began going out together, she told him that she would be 48 on Dec. Bth 1929, It did not strike me,” Coats Said, ‘‘that there was anything wrong in the manner of our friendship, because I understood her .parents knew that vie were going out together, as I had been introduced to her mother on one occasion, and her brother knew that we were keeping company together.” Intimacies began about Christmas time, and some time in February Coats first knew that the girl w T as in a certain condition. “It was one Sunday night, probably about early March,” Coats continued, “that I returned to my room in Abel Smith Street, about 6.30 p.m., and I found Phyl sitting on the bed. I asked what was the matter, and she said she would tell me after she had had a cry. After crying for some 'time, she tord me she had run away from home. She said she was making some toast when her mother hit her, and her brother, Murray, came on the scene, and Tiit her mother foi striking her. Her other brother then came in and he and Murray had a fight. Her mother had told lier to get out of it. She had left, home as the result of this row which had taken place at her home. I was out of work at the time, and told her I did not have much money ; but she proposed staying with me. I am positive it was not me who first made this proposition. I consented to her staying.”

Coats then described, in his statement, various moves they had made to other places. They managed to struggle along on his small earnings from the relief works.

“I did not consider that ray proper course was to take the girl home to her parents, because I knew she would not have gone in any case,”* Coats said. ‘‘lt may be that it was not a right thing for me to do to cc-habit with this young girl, but I deny that I induced her to stay with me, or that I ever prevented her from going home. ■.She could have gone home at any time she liked. 'We lived together as man and wife because she wanted to do so, and rny position in the matter was that I consented to this.” “PHYL left me."' “On Thursday June 25, Phvl lett me,” Coats continued. "The circumstances were that I had missed a job in the Fire Brigade m Auckland through not being on the spot—l told Phyl that I was not earning enough to keep us both, and that- it was best tha*. ,p should try to get up to Auckland, and she agreed to go away then—she said she had plenty of friends to go to; but she did not suggest where she was going. She left' me without mv having any knowledge where she had gone I asked her where she intended to go. She would not tell me.” Coats said the plan was that- he was to write to her, care of the G.P.0.. Wellington, in about a month’s time.

Phyl told him that a man called 1 Ernie her cousin—was responsible for , her condition, although he knew he, 1 himself might have been responsible, j 'He had thought this until he was told 1 about Ernie. / In the latter part of his statement ( Coats denied having interfered with the girl with a view to bringing about i a certain result. Certain remarks to 1 Glover and Melville and certain actions ( i in Glover’s presence had been in the J nature o*f jokes. Coats admitted that, his sense of what was a joke might be * regarded as peculiar, | Resuming his evidence, Detective ( Murray said that at the closing of the ( : taking of the statement, Coats began, to tremble very noticeably, and showed signs of nervousness. He asked for a drink of water, and one was brought rto him. Coats said afterwards: “Well what are you going to do with me?” After they had had lunch they all went to Coates’s room, where under the bed. were two suitcases, winch, i Coats said, contained his personal ef-, faults. There were 4 two letters also, which Coats said he had written ready for posting. Detective Murray produced letters in Court. In one- of them, written to h : s sister. Coats had said that he had “got Add of Phyl,” and in the other, to his mother, he said that he j had “got rid of that girl.” I Detective Murray asked him what he i had meant by those references, and Coats said that it was just h s way of j saying they had parted. The Court adjourned at this stage i until 10 a.m. to-morrow.