THOUGHT SHE HAD KILLED LOVER

NZ Truth, Issue 1185, 16 August 1928, Page 9

THOUGHT SHE HAD KILLED LOVER

Facing Trial On Charge of Attempted Murder, Woman Pleads Self-defence and Is Acquitted

"YOU'LL FIND HIM BLEEDING LIKE STUCK PIG!"

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Duhedin Representative,)

'She woman told a dramatic story of a life-and-death struggle m which she had defended herself With a tomahawk- The Crown held that she had murderously attacked her lover while he lay asleep. But the woman convinced the jury that her story tods the true version, winning her acquittal and freedom from the menacing shadow of a prison cell

ELSIE CLARA BABICH was charged alternatively with attempting to murder Wilfred Charles Waldren, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and causing grievous bodily harm. The case threw open to the pub Ho gaze the domestic life of the two central figures — each married, but living together out of wedlock,- their apparently persistent quarrelling working up to a dramatic climax which might easily have ended fatally. The first that was known of the affray was when a woman accosted a youth named Cecil Joseph Rackley, who was on his way to work at 4 o'clock on the morning of May 18, and made the startling announcement that she had just murdered someone, adding that she was not sorry, either. *- It was denied by the accused woman that jealousy was the motive, but she made the significant remark that Waldren, the victim of the assault, had been out with "that woman" and riotas he had declared— away at a motor breakdown. , ' Still bearing evidence of the blow across the ear he had received with the axe, Waldren gave his version of the affair before Mr. Justice Ostler and a jury at Dunedin last week. , He stated that he had been staying with Mrs. Babich for some three years m rooms over his motor garage m King Street, Dunedin. They lived together as man and wife. ■ An "occasional quarrel" was all he could recall that' had disturoed the even tenor of their domestic life. He i!lllll!llllll!!llllllllllllllllllll!llllllllllllllllllllllll!llllllllllllllllllllllllll!lllllilll]llii

could offer no reason why Mrß. Babich should attack him. The day before the assault they had quarrelled and he had blaokened her eye by striking her with his fist. He was out on the night Of the 17th and returned at 3 o'clock m the morning. ■ .After the questioning of Mrs. Babich concerning his whereabouts the previous evening, he fell asleep. The next thing he knew was being awakened by a - savage . blow on the head. He found the bed soaked m blood. His ear had been gashed across, and, as his belligerent paramour had by this time taken her departure, he crawled to the door to call the assistance of his brother-in-law, who occupied rooms m the same building. .

blood coming, I did not stop; but anyhow, he got what he deserved." The contents of the room had not been disturbed. -The pillows on the bed were saturated with blood and there were also pools of blood on the floor. The accused woman pleaded selfdefence. In the course of her evidence, she unfolded the unhappy story of her life with Waldren, speaking with great emotion and almost breaking down as she described the fear with which she had been overcome when Waldren allegedly struggled with her m mortal combat. Waldren, she said, had repeatedly knocked her about and twice she had to receive medical attention. . On two other occasions she had to ' call In the police I lior>pnao nf Ma TIAr.

the tomahawk produced m court as the -one he kept m his rooms. He did not recollect being

Her Unhappy Life

sisterit cruelty. Two or three months ago she had to see Sergeant " Boulton because hei

struck and must have been asleep. Under lengthy cross-examina-tion .by Lawyer Claude White, Waldren declared that" he had lived happily with Mrs. Babich. Counsel : When you blackened her eye and threw some water over" her, did you call her a ? — No. Didn't you say to her: "Hullo, you — — , how 1 many clients have you had to-night?"— l did not. Waldren denied having attempted to examine the contents of her purse or that he man-handled her after pulling her out of bed. Cyril Joseph Rackley, a youth employed on the publishing staff of the "Otago Daily Times," said he- was accosted by Mrs. Babich m King/Street at ¥ o'clock m the morning of May 18,

when she said: "I have just murdered somebody — and I'm not sorry, either." Rackley declined an invitation to go upstairs and see if Waldren were still alive. "You will find him upstairs, bleeding like a stuck pig," the woman said. Rackley accompanied Babich to the Dunedin North police station. i While on the way there, she discussed the occurrence and told Rackley that she hit Waldren on the head with an i axe. i She said that Waldren had demanded her money and she had taxed him with i coming home late. Waldren had put his prolonged absence down to a breakdown with his •> car, but Mrs. Babich declared that he 1

had been out with "that woman." Constable Matheson, who was 'on duty at the police station when Mrs. Babich arrived,

repeated her dramatic announcement. Bareheaded, with her hair disarranged, she remarked: "I have done something to Wilfred Waldren. Arrest me or do something with me ... . "I hit him on the head with a tomahawk, but I , don't know whether I killed him or 'not ..." The constable . accompanied .Mrs. Babich back home. When she. saw Waldren sitting on the bed, she said: "I wish I had. killed you!" » She reiterated this wish when the charge was subsequently read over to her and she was taken back to the watch-house. To Detective J. Russell, who later examined the room, Mrs. Babich said: "When I saw the nniiiimiiiiiiiiimiiiiniiimniriniiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiimiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiii

A Gruesome Wish

face was bleeding and Waldren had threatened her 1 that she would never leave the place alive. In one of his fits of violence, he had hit her on the mouth and broken her false teeth, whilst he had also torn up her clothing and burned her hats m front of other people. Waldren's conduct became so bad that on one occasion she had to leave him, but he asked forgiveness and persuaded her to return. On the night preceding the assault, Waldren had exploited thorough caveman tactics by throwing water over her, blackening her eye and then pulling her around the floor. , r Dealing with the incidents' leading up to- the assault, Mrs. Babich said she was awakened by Waldren undressing m the bedroom at 3.30 m the morning.

He said: "Hullo, you , how many clients have you had tonight? I must have a look," and . made towards where her purse was hanging. Mrs. Babich replied: "You leave it alone! It is not the first time you have taken my money ..." Waldren became incensed at this accusation and pulled her off the bed with the remark that he would "fix" her. "He punched me on the back of the neck and then pulled me by the hair on to the floor. . . "I was going to run away and lock myself- m the bedroom . ... ." Speaking with a sob m her voice, Mrs; Babich declared that she was afraid of her life and didn't know what he would have done if he could have

got her back on the bed. . "I picked up the first thing I could — the tomahawk— to protect myself . . . and while he was

trying to drag me back to the bed I hit him . . . I don't know where. "When I hit him he called me 'a ' and staggered back to the bed ... "I threw away the axe and ran across the road." The accused woman Was not crossexamined by the Crown Prosecutor. It is not very often that police officers give evidence m support of a case against the Crown, but Lawyer White called Sergeant Boulton, who stated that four Weeks before the assault Mrs. Babich had called at the station* when both her eyes were completely closed, the result of a hammering, she said, from Waldren. The sergeant washed away the blood and invited her to lay a complaint iiiiniiiiiii!iiiiimiiiniMiuimiiiiiiiiiiii)iiiiiiiiiiiiiirniiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiiiiiii>

against Waldren, but she refused, as she had done on two previous oooaslons. 'Dr. Linden, speaking with a pronounoed French accent and a stickler for meticulous detail, caused some merriment with his minutely accurate description of the bruises he found on Mrs. Babich's body the day following the assault. In his opinion, they had been caused by violence and could <have been inflicted two days before the examination. In the course of his address to the jury, Crown Prosecutor Adams said he was not constrained to ask the jury to believe everything Waldren had said. "You will probably conclude, gentlemen, that Waldreri has not given you all that occurred that nlflht ...» The jury returned after forty-five minutes' retirement to ask the judge's ruling on a verdict of guilty on the charge of causing grievous bodily harm, but under extreme provocation and m self-defence. The judge said he would accept this as a plea of guilty, for the law held that — according to the jury's finding— they considered she was not m fear of death or grievous bodily harm and had used greater force than was necessary to repel the force being used against her. A subsequent retirement of three minutes was sufficient for the jury to make up their minds that the woman was not guilty.