CONVICTION STANDS

Southland Times, Issue 24868, 7 October 1942, Page 2

CONVICTION STANDS

Instrument Unlawfully Used (P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 6. Judgment was delivered today by the Court of Appeal in the case of the Crown versus Henry Arthur Hirt. The case was one stated by Mr Justice Kennedy for the Court’s opinion pursuant to section 442 of the Crimes Act 1908. In its judgment the Court held unanimously that whether or not a full opportunity to cross-examine the witness had been afforded to the accused, his counsel or solicitor was a question of fact dependent on the circumstances of each case and not a question of law. In this particular case the deposition of the witness Gladys Agnes Short was receivable in evidence and the conviction was therefore affirmed. Hirt was convicted at the July sittings of the Supreme Court at Dunedin on a charge of unlawfully using an instrument with an attempt to procure the miscarriage of Gladys Agnes Short. The accused was arrested at his rooms in Dunedin in May last and a room adjoining, In which Miss Short was in bed. was declared a Magistrate's Court and the deposition taken of Miss Short, who died on May 18. At the trial an objection was made that the accused’s solicitor, Mr G. T. Baylee, did not have full opportunity to cross-examine the witness. Her deposition was admitted not as a dying declaration. but under Sections 172 and 173 of the Justices of the Peace Act 1927. The questions for the opinion of the Court were whether her deposition was properly admitted in evidence and if not what course should have been taken.