“A HOLOCAUST”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 35, 4 May 1927, Page 9

“A HOLOCAUST”

THE MOTOR'S TOLL JURY’S RESPONSIBILITY A DUNEDIN CASE Press Association DUNEDIN, To-day. In the Supreme Court Ashley George Faigan was charged with having committed manslaughter by killing Neil Gauld, or, alternatively, with having negligently driven a motor-car and caused the death of Gauld. The accident happened near Forbury corner on December 30 last, when accused was driving a car accompanied by another man and two young women. Mr. Justice Reed, summing up, said on the manslaughter count that a very interesting question of the law arose—a question which required the verdict of the jury to enable the Court of Appeal to give a decision on the point whether the mere fact of a person driving a motor-ear without a licence, and killing a person, made the driver guilty of manslaughter. It was indisputable that the accused had no licence, and that he killed the man. Consequently, if the law was correct, it was the duty of the jury to find the accused guilty on the first count. Regarding the second count, if the jury said in effect, “The poor beggar did not mean to do this, and we won’t convict him,” then the holocaust of motor accidents would go on unchecked. The jury returned a verdict of guilty as directed by the Judge on the first count, and one of guilty on the second, with a strong recommendation to mercy on account of accused’s youth. He was remanded for sentence.