DEATH OF MRS. MERRETT IN EDINBURGH

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3594, 3 February 1927, Page 3

DEATH OF MRS. MERRETT IN EDINBURGH

TRIAL OF SON OPENED

London, February 1

The trial has opened at Edinburgh of John Donald Merrett, a young man of 19, educated in New Zealand, on a charge of murdering his mother, Mrs. Bertha Merritt, on March 17, 192(», in her flat in Edifiburgh.

There were six women jurors. The accused appeared in the dock in an overcoat. He wore horn-rim-med spectacles. A plea of not guilty was entered.

|frs. Sutherland, housemaid, gave evidence that after breakfast she left her mistress writing in the sA J ling-room. The accused, John, was reading. She heard a shot and a scream. John entered the kitchen and said, “Mother has shot herself.” John added that he had been wasting his mother’s money, and he thought she was worried. Witness found Mrs. Merrett lying on the floor with a revolver on the bureau. She denied telling the detective that she sow the revolver falling from her mistress’s hand. Her mistress told her that she had had a hard life, losing her husband in the Russian Revolution. She was devoted to John. They appeared to he on most affectionate terms.

Inspector Fleming read accused’s statement declaring that his mother had complained that lie was spending too much money and neglecting his studies. His mother was writing when he pointed out that she had wrongly addressed an envelope. She said :• “Go away. You bother me.” He* went, to the other side of the room to get some books when he heard a report and saw his mother falling on the floor. Inspector Fleming said that the deceased’s hanking account was overdrawn. He questioned the accused regarding three cheques amounting to £BB dated after his mother’s admission to hospital. Accused said that his mother signed the cheques, and he hilled in the amounts. It was a customary arrangement. Merrett is also charged with forging his mother’s signature ,to cheques totalling £BB. Merrett had explained that he bought the revolver, with 50 catridges, for £5, intending to use it on his holidays in France. His mother took the revolver on March 13, and he did not see it again. The inspector added that other cheques and counterfoils were

missing. The case was adjourned