Sensational Turn in Boakes Trial

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 207, 21 November 1927, Page 13

Sensational Turn in Boakes Trial

WITNESS’S ALLEGATIONS AGAINST POLICE Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. Tiif; supreme Court was crowded to-day when the trial of Charles William Boakes, a taxi-driver, who is charged with the murder of Ellen Gwendoline Scarff on June 15, at Burwood, began before Mr. Justice Adams. An unexpected development was announced when the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. Donnelly, told the jury that the witness named King, alleging that he had been persuaded by Detective Bickerdike into making a false statement as to selling drugs to the accused, now denied the whole of his evidence given in the lower Court. Ellen Martha Scarff, mother of the dead girl, was the first witness, giving evidence on the lines of the Lower Court.

IV/TR. A. T. DONNELLY' represented the Crown, Mr. C. S. Thomas, ■with Mr. M. J. Burns, represented the prisoner who pleaded “not guilty” in a firm voice. Mr. Donnelly said that it was a savage and brutal crime. He then detailed the movements of the prisoner and the girl. The case for the crown depended on circumstantial evidence, said Mr. Donnelly. There was no direct evidence. There was nothing mysterious in the circumstantial evidence; it varied according to the circumstances. It was a network of facts round an accused person. He wished to present the case to the jury under three heads. First, what was the relationship of the girl with the accused over a number of years up to the end of last year, and from the end of last year till June 8 this year. Under the second head he would ask the jury to consider what were the movements of the girl between June 8 and June 15, and her relationship with the accused during that period. Thirdly, what was the conduct of the accused, and his movements and

statements after the murder was committed and up to the time of his arrest? Dealing with the first heading Mr. Donnelly said that the girl was about 20 when she died. Accused had known her since she was a very small child. “Only Person with Motive” The girl had been battered to death with a heavy motor-car spanner, continued the prosecutor, and the injuries to her head and face were of an exceedingly dreadful character. From the time that her watch stopped it would appear that the murder took place at 12.27 o'clock on the morning of June 15. Doctors considered that the girl lingered from eight to twelve hours after she was struck. Mr. Donnelly submitted that the relationship between Boakes and the girl Scarff reasonably excluded the possibility of her murderer being any other person than the accused., The accused was, on the facts that would be placed before the jury, the only person who had a motive, interest, or opportunity of doing away with tha girl. “In the lower court,” continued Mr. Donnelly, “a chemis’s assistant named King gave evidence that he sold accused pills and stuff of that kind. This witness gave evidence freely and frankly in the lower court and on the face of his evidence he had done wrong in giving Boakes this stuff. Within the last week this witness went and consulted his solicitor and has gone completely back on the evidence he gave in the lower court. He says now that he never sold any stuff to Boakes and that the whole of his evidence was untrue, and that the reason he gave this false evidence was because he was ‘persuaded or bullied’ by Detective Bickerdike into doing so. Well, gentlemen, this witness, King, I will call. It is to be assumed that he will stick to the last statement he has made, and if he does then what he now says is that the whole of the evidence he gave in the lower court was untrue and false and that the police persuaded him or bullied him into doing so.” The jury, added Mr. Donnelly, would have to consider what the police practice was in these matters. The police had to make inquiries. A detective or police officer saw witnesses and took statements from them. King wrote out his evidence in his cwn handwriting. Later on, wanting to amend the statement, King wrote out another statement.