THE CORNISH CASE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9151, 21 May 1908, Page 5

THE CORNISH CASE.

CHARGE OP MURDER. Per Press Association, Dunedin, May 20. • At 'Balclutha to-day, before Mr Kenrick, S.M., Richard Cornish, late licensee of the Stirling Hotel, was charged that he did on the Ist May kill and slay Catherine Elizabeth Cornish, his ;wife. Mr Fraser appeared for the Crown and Mr Hanlon for the defence.

Elizabeth Bennett, employed as cook at the Stirling Hotel on the date in question, said on May Ist, in consequence of something a girl named Knox said, she listened and heard thumping in Mrs Cornish’s bedroom. Witfaess formed the opinion that the noise was caused by Oorhish dumping his wife up aud down the room. The noise continued while she was dressing prior to going to the kitchen. As soon as witness started lighting the range, the thumping ceased. She then heard moaning from Mrs Cornish’s room. The moaning started about 6.15 and "continued to half-past eleven. After 11.30 everything was still. Accused came into the kitchen about a quarter past two. He had an enamel dish in his hand. He got water from a tap in the kitchen range. He said “Lizzie, I think Missus is dead.’’ He went into the bathroom with the basin. Witness went to the bedroom door. She saw deceased and sent for a doctor. She asked Cornish to come and put deceased on the bed. She was lying on the floor of the bedroom, her feet being under the bed and her head towards a chest of drawers. Accused said, “I told her I would murder her; I have done .it.” Witness said, “Keep your own counsel.” He was then wiping blood from the deceased’s face with a sponge. When she told him to keep his own counsel he replied, “Don’t leave me now Lizzie; you are the only friend I have got.” Witness replied, “No, I will not.” Witness denied having taken clothing off the deceased’s body. Witness did not see any blood in the bedroom or passage. She did not clean up any blood, but the ."girl Knox did. She saw her cleaning it np in the sitting room which was “just swamped with blood.” Cross-examined: Witness said she had been going under the name of Bennett for the last six years. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Bennett Mahoney. She was married and divorced, and afterwards took the name of Bennett. She told the truth at the inquest held on Mrs Cornish.

Mr Hanlon : Did you sweaFat the inquest that accused said to you: “I told her I would murdder- her, and I have done it?” Witness: I wasn’t asked that question. There are lots of things yet I haven’t been asked. Mr Hanlon: Were the other statements about thumping aud moaning made at the inquest? Witness: Yes.

Further cross-examined, witness said she did not say at the inquest that Cornish asked her not to leave him, and that she was the only friend he had, because she was not asked it. She did not go and make inquiry when she heard the moaning because it was not her buisness to interfere with any other part of the house but the Jkitchen. Cornish gave information to the police on Wednesday against her on susipcion of theft. Cornish made a [search of her box and took out a wrapper and pin belonging to the deceased. She took the wrapper to cut a pattern out of it. It was not a fact that Cornish discharged her. Witness had made no threats against'accnsed.

Mr Hanlon : Didn’t you go to my office yesterday and ask for £l, saying if yon did not get it |you would put the show away? Witness : I did, hut it was only a lark. I didn’t get it so it is all right. FURTHER EVIDENCE.

Evidence given by Dr. Burnett, of Balclutha, was to the effect that there was a wound 1 % inches long on deceased’s head. The head and face presented au uniformly bruised appearance. There was a bruise on the brain aud injury on the right side of the scalp. In his opinion the swelling on the face and the black eyes were due to injuries received within 24 hours before death. He thought the injury to the left side of the brain was possibly caused by a direct blow on the face, say with a fist. Witness thought that a wound on the right temple had been caused by contact with a sharp edge. There was about loz. to 2ozs. of blood in the stomach. This, lie thought, had been swallowed just before death. Death seemed to have been accused by compression of the brain, due particularly to injury on the left side. It was not within the bounds of possibility that all the injuries could be caused by a single blow. He could uot tell whether deceased had been struck on the head, or had fallen on a hard substance.

Evidence was also given by Dr. Fitzgerald (Kaitangata). The Grown Prosecutor asked for a remand. He said the police had found another witness last night —a person who was believed “to have spent the night (April 80th) at the Stirling Hotel. The case was then adjourned to Dunedin on Wednesday next, on the understanding that accused he remanded back to Balclutha, on a suitable date.