SEARCHING LIGHT ON PORIRUA

NZ Truth, Issue 1211, 14 February 1929, Page 3

SEARCHING LIGHT ON PORIRUA

LiddleV Story

Appeal To Jury

Former Asylum Attendant Found TYRER'S 'BRUTAL ATTACK ON PATIENT

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Eepresentative) . lliiiiri iiiiiiiiirtiiiiit iiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiJiiiiiiiitttiiiiitiiiititif iiiiitiiiiiti'iitt iiiatiiiititiiittiiiifiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiriiiif iriiiiuifiiiiiitf ■itiiiiittiittiiiiiitiittttiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii l^

Ever since the day, early m December, when Henry | Dixon Tyrer was arrested by Detective-i sergeant "Jack" | Thompson at ihe Porirua Mental Hospital, on a charge of j caiising actual bodily harm, practically the whole of New | Zealand had narrowed its attention to the progress of the | case. 1 When Tyrer came before Mr. Justice Herdman and a 1 jury the panel disagreed. A new trial was ordered and 1 the second jury found him guilty, not of intent, but of the" | actual offence. . . |

THE man m the dock was a pleasantfaced, short - square - shouldered type of rural Cornishman. Although he paid close attention to the testimony of each witness he did not permit any sign of emotion .to reflect itself m his face, and even when, after a retirement of four and a-half hours, the jury foreman announced a disagreement, Tyrer merely flushed slightly. . . : The sharpest sensation of the whole trial was when Liddle, the injured man, repeated the testimony which had resulted m the arrest of the attendant Tyrer, on the charge of causing actual bodily harm to Liddle, a patient. Albert Edward Liddle, 52 years of age, has been a patient at the Porirua Mental Hospital since 1922, but he gave his evidence m a manner surprisingly coherent and connected, quite, different from what many expected of him. There was one dramatic moment. Mr. W. E. Leicester, defending counsel, asked him whether he remembered telling .the lower court that Tyrer had "attacked scores of men," to which Liddle, scrambling to his feet, exclaimed: "I withdraw , that, because it is best known to God and I."

No one laughed. Everyone was gripped by the intensity with wiih:lt Liddle had embodied bis answer, with the simple, if somewhat melodramatic manner m which he had framed his reply. < This is the story he told: On Saturday, December 1, he said to a number ' of other inmates: "I'm going to break a window to-morrow," and on the following morning, about twenty past or half-past eleven, while he was m No. 3 courtyard, he hurled a piece of clay through an uuper window. When, a few minutes later, Tyrer came into the courtyard, lie said to Liddle: "I can't sleep m that room now, with the window broken. You ought to go m and clean it up. You ought jto be made to clean up that glass. I'll make you." Tyrer-. -then took Liddle by tiie arm, and a junior attendant namod Quintal opened a door, through which they passed into the day-room, thence through the two double glass doors into the corridor, and into the first bedroom on the left-hand side of the corridor. When the door was closed, Tyrer allegedly, caught Liddle by the neck and coat, knocked his feet from under him, dealt him a stunning blow, and when he fell on to the floor, according to Liddle, kicked him several times m the small of the back, m the chest and the stomach. After seven or eight kicks, he said, the senior attendant lifted Liddle to his feet, and then punched him under the jaw. Once or twice Liddle was "out" for a few seconds, or, he said, it may have been minutes. / Tyrer then was said to have thrown him -against the Avail, and when Liddle

defied him, Tyrer became so enraged that he jumped on the patient-victim's chest, and then commenced to kick him again. He lifted Liddle to his feet, saying: "Have you had enough?" to which Liddle replied: "Yes." "You won't break another window?" queried the attendant, to which Liddle saj r s he replied' "No," and that when he ga>ve that answer Tyrer retorted: "You can break all the — r- windows m the place, so long as you don't break mine." Liddle said it was useless calling out

for help, and that although he was being kicked and struck Quintal did not interfere. ' When he was allowed to leave the room, he walked along the verandah of No. 3 courtyard, vyiere all the other patients were lined up, waiting for dinner.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiniiim; He was doubled up with pain, and although he went into the dining-room with the others, he couldn't eat anything. Ten minutes after he entered the dining-room, Liddle felt ill, so much so that he was obliged to speak to an attendant named Hustler, who took him into the office,' and called for Tyrer. Hustler lifted the man's clothing, looked at Liddle's breast, and said: "There's something broken," and when Tyrer looked at the patient's chest he asked him whether he had fallen on the concrete. ,

"i"""immiiiilllllllllllllll INIIIINIIIIIIIIIHIIIiniIiniIIIIIIIIIMIWIIII / Liddle said lie made no response to the suggestion. They took him away to the hospital, and on the way there Tyrer is supposed to have said: "Play the game and say nothing about it," to which Liddle replied: "On my oath before God, I'llsay nothing to tiie doctors." Walter Paterson Quintal, who hails from Norfolk Island and at the time of the alleged assault was a junior attendant at the Porirua Mental Hospital, told a story which was practically identical with that given by the patient, Liddle. Quintal also said that at a quarter to one, or thereabouts, that afternoon, he was sitting on the lawn m front of the building, when Tyrer called him, and when he obeyed the summons Tyrer said: "I have got myself m a bit of a ' mess, and we have, to stick together. I couldn't go up and say I deliberately kicked the man. "We will say that the patients, Vogt and Liddle,' had a fight, and whilst Liddle was down, Watt, another patient, kicked him. Quintal says that he agreed at the time that Tyrer couldn't' say he kickr ed the man, and with that the conversation' ended, Quintal returning to his seat on the lawn. Later m the day, another attendant named Struthers, " who, with attendant Huckstepp was said to have ' been present when

Tyrer was supposed, to have urged . Quintal 'to stand by him, told Quintal he was wanted m the office. At the office he was asked to sign a form which purported to show how Liddle received his injuries, since it is a rule of the hospital that when a patient suffers some injury it must be shown clearly how the injury was received, and by whom the occurrence was witnessed. This fight was supposed to have taken place before Liddle threw the piece . of clay which broke Tyrer's window, but Dr. Macky, assistant medical officer at the Poirirua Mental Hospital, was crossing the courtyard of No. 3 when he heard the sound of breaking- glafes. and, turning around, saw Liddle standing fifteen yards away. In the doctor's opinibn it would have been impossible for Liddle to throw the 'missile had he been suffering the injuries which necessitated his removal to the hospital. Doctor Macky found Liddle to have sustained a fracture of the breastbone, the lower fragment of which was overriding the upper, although the

hones had not penetrated the skin. When the case came before the Supreme Court, defending counsel sustained the original plea of "Not guilty," supporting it with an earnest plea for the acquittal of his •client. Mr. Leicester brought various witnesses to testify as to. the' previously unimpeachable record ■of his client, and he urged the jury carefully to weigh the testimony of Liddle, an insane man. . When the jury foreman announced that the. jury had not been able to agree, his honor, Mr. Justice Herdman, ordered a new trial to commence on .Monday, of this week, Tyrer being allowed bail during the intervening period. . -.•'■' At the close of the second trial, which lasted Cor two days, Tyrer was found not guilty of intent but guilty of the actual offence. He was sentenced to twelve months' hard labor, to be followed by a period of lefonnsuive detention not exceedingtwelve months.