TRIAL FOR MURDER AT CHRISTCHURCH.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 716, 3 July 1878, Page 2

TRIAL FOR MURDER AT CHRISTCHURCH.

(per press agency.) Chkistchubch, July 2. In the Supreme Court to-day, Mrs. Steele was charged with the wilful murder of her son ; \V. H. B. Steele. The case for the Crown was that the deceased, on the day in question, was greasing boots at the end of the garden. The prisoner, who was in a neighbor's house, on being told by her daughter that the boy was using some dripping instead of cartgrjjase, went out suddenly, and the next thafiwaa seen of her was with the boy in'Aa|3*fc|iMr,' with a wound on the lef&Bse-of*hiß-'bead. The prisoner ex plij^aS^^y<h^>^^ have fell on himself. On the the garden, a poker with brains upon it was fonj&jUf&T.;sh.<yspot, as also the boy's na '- ISftfiw ultimately died from the "woub JtflStel the prisoner, who h»d often bfeenj jysftrd to threaten deoeased, was AroMri §l. on a charge of murder. The evidence given by Dr. Frankish, SemjlJo the effect that the prisoner could Stojfhave killed deceased, as she could not Jteye thrown the iron with such force as to have caused death, and the wound was evidently not the result of a blow, The jury returned a verdict of not guilty. J. G. Fortescue, charged with committing an unmentionable offence, was acquitted.