THE OMEO MURDER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5272, 9 May 1928, Page 2

THE OMEO MURDER.

CLERGYMAN ACQUITTED.

TENSE CLOSING SCENES.

The following is from a Melbourne paper:—

After a retirement of six hours and 20 minutes the jury returned tonight with a verdict of “Not guilty” in the seconl trial of Ronald Greeves Griggs. ex-Methodist clergyman at Omeo, who was charged with murdering h ! s wife on January 3 with doses of arsenic.

When the jury returneyl the second time Griggs appeared in the last stages of agitation, though under great control. He gripped the front of the dock fiercely, and peered anxiously at the foreman. When “not guilty” was uttered, after the short delay of the formal interrogation, Griggs gasped'and leaned backward, but his grip on the, front of the dock held him firm.

His friend, the Rev. H. M. Knuckey, who had attended Griggs throughout the trial and alls© the first trial at Sale, collapsed in a faint on the floor. The first act of Griggs when released from the prisoner’s dock was to dart across the floor of the court room to his friend. As the court had been cleared there were only officials, pressmen, and Mr Knuckey present to witness the acquittal. There were no .women present. Griggs- left the court shortly afterwards in a taxi. MEMORABLE SCENES. Memorable scenes were enacted throughout the day, and during the closing hours when the jury was in retirement. For the fourth morning a knot of people was waiting outside the court doors when dawn appeared over the city. Those who fa'led to gain admit-, •tance hung about for hours. Even after the jury retired at 3.27 a crowd of 100 people hung about outside the. court.

Those inside would, have remained glued to their seats, but the gallery was cleared 1 and none of the. public was readmitted to hear the verdict. Early in the evening the crowd which hafi waited, outside was reinforced to 400.

As 9.30 approached and the expira’ tion of the six hours usuallyi allowed a jury in which to come to a decision, it was thought to be certain, that a disagreement had occurred. On the tick of the half-hotly, the jury knocked, and was. re-admitted to the court, but only with a request for an extension of time. His Honour granted the pequest, and the jury retired once more, to re-i turn at 9.47 with the verdict of not guilty.

The police stated later that Griggs .collapsed on the stairs when ascending from the cells to the dock to 'hear the jury’s verdict, and had to be assisted to the top. For three hours 12 minutes Mr. Justice Macfarlan. held the Court motionless in t'he grip of his eloquence with a masterly summing-up. It was apparent that he himself was as ’intensely interested in this, great drama covering the gamut of all the human pass'ons as these who had waited since dawn for his words. He presented the facts, coldly, and dispassionately with irresistible logic. Griggs listened intently, mostly with his eyes turned upwards and»his, chin resting in his hand. He betrayed no active signs of nervousness, even when the most incriminating points made against him were paraded for the jury. Nor did his demeanour change when the judge- weighed the possibilities of suicide or accidental death raised by the defence. COURT RELAXED. When his Honour ceased the crowded court relaxed. Individuals coughed, and there was, a sudden break from the hushed silence to a buzz of activity. “It would' be improper for you to approach this case with the idea, “ Here is a man carrying, on with this girl. It is very convenient for him to get rid of his wife,” said His, Honour.

“Griggs does not stand before, you charged with adultery, leading a double life, or with having written, that letter to the deceased’s mother., with its sham and .hypocrisy.

“One. cannot help feeling a certain amount of indignation, perhaps disgust, when one reads, the letter written to the mother under those cir•cumstances. Holding feelings of r,er sentment and disgust with Grigg’s conduct is very bad, and, unless one watches one’s judgment very closely these feelings may warp, it.”-

The jury’s duty, said His Honour, was to decide whether Griggs killed his wife intentionally, and' the field of inquiry .was narrowed to whether he. killed her by administering or, causing her to take arsenic.

Matters with an important bearing on the case jver.e the sex relations of Griggs with Lottie Condon, his relations wit’h his wife, the double life he wag leading, and his conduct to cover up those relations. The defence had admitted that the woman 1 died from arsepical poisoning, but raised the two obvious possibilities of suicide or mistake. THERE WAS MOTIVE. Undoubtedly Mrs Grigg’s sickness commenced the evening alfter her return to Omeo from Tasmania, even before the chemist’s prescription was made up. The Crown’s case was that Griggs >had the opportunity of obtaining arsenic at Condon’s, and at another farmer’s,, whe.re large quantities were kept. Motive did not prove commission of a crime, but there was, a motive in this case for the prisoner wishing to be rid of his wife,, and the Crown, said it had proved it up to the hilt.

At the conclusion of the judge’s addfesfe Mr Maxwell, senior counsel for the defence, aske-d His Honour to elaborate two points : (1) the improbability of Griggs administering what would be a fatal dose of arsenic the moment his wife set foot in the parsonage. If Griggs, knew anything about arsenic poisoning, was it likely that he would have given her poison, enough to kill her in anything from

12 hours to three days ? The second was in regard to the evidence of any mistake which might have been made by Mr Perry. INCREDIBLE VERDICT. The announcement of the acquittal' was received with Incredulity by the * crow 1 ! outside, the court. Many were resentful, and a demijjlj.., stration-might have occurred had Hot: tlie police dispersed the crowd before Griggs and Mr Knuckey whisked out' the side gates in a taxi. There was one woman in court when the verdict was announced, it was Mrs White, the mother of the late Mrs Griggs, she sat in an obscure corner, .her head bowed in her hands. “A cruel verdict. A cruel verdict,” she repeatedly muttered to herself, and left the court a sad and subdued figure.