FINGER ON TRIGGER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19473, 7 May 1925, Page 5

FINGER ON TRIGGER.

THREAT WITH LOADED GUN - . BAILIFF'S ENTRY ON FARM. “There appears to have been very little between a breach of the Arms Act and a charge of murder," said Police Sergeant Henry, when Albert Henry Yeatman, of vratnnn, appeared in the Hawera Court a few days ago for presenting a loaded firearm at an acting-bailiff, E. R. Brind, who was attempting to serve a distress warrant upon him. Mr ,T. S. Barton, S.M., was on the Bench. Mr H. B. Gibson, who appeared for the accused, -withdrew his formal pica of not guilty and substituted one of guilty. Sergeant Henry said the information was under the Arms Act. The accused bad difficulty in keeping up his payments under the lease of his farm from one Priest, of Awatuna. The bailiff, in company with Priest, jnn., called at the accused’s house with a distress warrai t after mid-day and waited till Yeatman arrived between 4 and 5 p.m. Brind explained their mission, aud the accused appeared to lose his head. He rushed into the house, secured a double-oarrellod gun and loaded it in the presence of his two visitors. lie then threatened to shoot Priest, and actually pointed the gun at him and placed his finger on the trigger. Brind pleaded witli him not to shoot, and the accused then turned the gun on Brind. Yeatman asked where he was going to sleep that night, with the bailiff in charge of the house, and Brind extended hospitality to him, inviting him to stay in the house with himself and Priest. Accused then declared that if they stayed in the house they would not leave it alive. Eventually the two left the promises and returned to Hawera, where they interviewed a solicitor. Tlio alleged offence had occurred at about 0 o’clock, and at fi o’clock Brind was still a “bunch of nerves,” and had evidently suffered a great shock, although he was a man not easiiy shaken. There ap pcared to be very little between a breach of tne Firearms 'Vet ana a charge of murder. The sergeant asked that the gun be confiscated, as he did not think Yeatman a fit person to have charge of it. The Magistrate, before hearing Mr Gibson, said the facts would justify a conviction for al tempted murder according to the, reading of the Act. Mr Gibson pleaded for leniency, on the grounds that the accused was under great mental stress at the time of the offence.

He bad had some trouble with a dog, and had come home for a gun to shoot it. Yeatman was a victim of the slump, and all the conditions under which ho had suffered were sufficient to make any man mad. The Magistrate said he could not but take a serious view of the offence, in view of the fact that the Act provided the penalty of imprisonment. The offence had been committed with a certain amount of deliberation, preparation, and ostentation. The accused bad arrived at a point where the pressure of the finger alone remained to complete the crime''of murder. “The sentence of the Court is 14 clayaimprisonmont with hard labour, and I believe that that is a comparatively light sentence, in view of the substantial doubts I had on the question of whether or not it was my duty to send the defendant up to the Supreme Court on a more serious charge," sail the Magistrate, in sentencing Yeatman.