The Name Part

NZ Truth, Issue 1196, 1 November 1928, Page 7

The Name Part

ACCORDING to the police, Henry A Austin Stepforth, of Wellington, tries to live up to his name. Quite a handsome boy and dressed immaculately (he is only 19 years of age), he stepped into the dock m the Magistrate's Court last week to face two charges. The first was the common or garden count of being drunk, but the second was more serious. He was charged with assaulting a person unknown by attempting to kiss her. To this he pleaded not guilty. Shortly after 6 o'clock he was being escorted by friends' up Taranaki Street m a state of drunkenness. Henry was struggling from ■ the embrace of his comrades, and, at the psychological moment he stepped forth and flung his arms round a lady passer-by. • A constable who saw the little affair said Henry attempted to kiss the member of the fair sex, but mother's boy explained his action by saying he had, clutched at the • woman to maintain • his balancerhe had stumbled. •Magistrate Page gave Stepforth the benefit of the doubt and dismissed the charge, convicting and discharging".ht'tt);;) on. .the count of drunkenness. '.'./. ;' i:-.;;- .-/V y: V :

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiimiuiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiniiiiiiiiiMMiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir That day a boat sailed out of Auckland port for the South. Island, and the Question may be asked: Was there a man on board who had the brand ot Cain upon him? How far have the police followed such a clue? This much must be taken for granted—that the man who took the murdered girl to Panmure, with a foul purpose m his mind,. ...knew., at least: something of the district/ ;an4,..Xlika.. \ a,;; carrier- ■ pigeon, he homed. "Truth" is m a position to tell the public that it was not until- at least two weeks had elapsed that the. undergarment of the murdered girl— she Was but five feet tall- — was handed over to the Auckland pathologist. Once -m his hands, he was not long m discovering the hideous fact that not only was she murdered, but an attempt had been made to outrage her. To such an unpalatable fact, what answer have the' police chiefs m whose hands rested the* direction of the investigations? ■ . Why was not that bloodstained garment handed over immediately the girl's body, was disrobed "i it? the.. morgue?;;' ;:; '~.\. **'.'?„ "'-%'- ''' .. V ..':;' Such remarkable neglect of prima facie evidence of something niore than death from exposure,, or exhaustion, is riot easy to comprehend. It, can be pointed out that the mysterious visitor at the Baylys' homestead on that Monday night had also three alternative routes by which he might have travelled. • " He may have taken the service 1 motor Paef oa or and-travel-led thence , by trainf "or' by taking the morriing v " ( traih for Rotorua, Tie could then have arrived from there at Te Puke by r servicercar,: not later than, 7.30. p.m. : : ',---Quite^.apa£^.^^^^^e^e^^c.Qnjectu^.e:"' "Truth" is '.impelled', to ask whether there may not.be 4n» thte^Tj.e Puke clis,-> trict one or more persons*, ;: who could— and would — throw some .light on the mystery man m the' case, for m a district, which is not over; densely populated, the advent of any person rarely passes entirely unnoticed. But from various indications "Truth's" representative, was unable to avoid, an impression that to a certain degree there is a conspiracy of silence — or, at least, an atmosphere of de- : liberate incredulity— which is hard to reconcile with facts. ■ As the mystery stands to-day, lapse of time, -dilatory action,, offi- • cial apathy, if nothing worse, have all helped to cover the tracks of the obscene murderer of this young girl from Cape Runaway. This paper will -be the first to congratulate the men who have been entrusted with the. solution of the crime and are entrusted with the actual work of investigation— for any- blame there is to be shouldered cannot be laid at their door. .-.■•.' , Meanwhile, there is an infamous murderer at large. - '-