Crown Case Concludes

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1049, 13 August 1930, Page 12

Crown Case Concludes

MANLY MURDER TRIAL “Premeditation” Alleged Special to THE SUN WANGANUI, Tuesday. THE Crown concluded its case against Herbert Frederick Manly at the Supreme Court today, before Sir Michael Myers, Chief Justice. “The facts of the case are neither long nor complicated, said Mr. N. R. Bain, the Crown Prosecutor, addressing the jury. “This man is in an unfortunate position and in danger of losing his life. It has been the duty of the Crown to bring out not only evidence against him, but any we could find in his favour.”

“You will have no difficulty in coming to a conclusion that this girl was murdered. It is for you to ask yourselves whether Manly did murder her and the second question 3*oll have to decide is whether he had any intention of killing her. You will find no difficulty in determining that she died from a. cut throat, and you must ask yourself whether accused did it/’ Mr. Bain briefly reviewed the evidence submitted by the Crown, which he said showed the conduct of accused up to the date of the girl's death and subsequently. “These two people met in January, 1930, and became en- | gaged. Then, because of something of which at the moment we do not know, she broke off the engagement and returned the ring. You know what he did with that ring. “The letters he •wrote are significant. You will have no difficulty in deciding that when the engagement was broken off he was a brokenhearted man. In one letter written to her sister Dora from gaol in Wellington he says: ‘The only thing is J that I’ve not written home since April. It’s been a. hard enough fight to write ito you and explain to you. But this j I I can say: What I did was in love and : jealousy, not hate. When I was repeatedly told to forget her and not j worry I could not, and I don’t believe ] ever I could have done.’ This was ! the letter written on July S, two | months after the commission of the I offence. I suggest that you are en- j | titled to draw from that letter the j i inference that he did commit it and that he was sane because he says he j did it in jealousy and not hate. “On April 30 he writes: ‘With her, 1 I can see fame and fortune ahead: without her, nought but an entire destruction, and thus I can honestly see j two valuable lives destroyed.’ I sub- ! mit that you are entitled to draw an inference from that, that even as far j back as April he had in mind the loss of two lives, his own and that of the girl. QUESTION OF PREMEDITATION “We can come now to the point ? where accused and Stanley came back j to Wanganui. You have to consider the evidence to determine whether accused’s mind and manner were such as to suggest that he committed the deed and that it was premeditated.” Counsel drew attention to the statements which the evidence said accused had made. “From those you might draw the inference that the deed was premeditated and carried out deliberately. Take the evidence of Vera Campbell. She gave it in a ! straightforward way and gave a | straightforward reason for going to 1 see Manly at. the hotel. He tells her that if he can’t have Gladys nobody j else will, and she tells him not to be | silly. You may think it a silly state- i ment, and if it had been made to one of you gentlemen it might seem silly as a statement by itself, but you have to consider it in conjunption with the other remarks made by accused. “I must touch on the evidence relating to May 9. We have a pair of trousers, a shirt, a knife and the evidence of Mrs. Cromarty about accused complaining of spots on his trousers. The spots seen on them at the police station by Detective Walsh were iden-

tified as recent bloodstains. You may draw what Inference you like from that. We come to the evening meal on Thursday when a statement was made by accused that he was going to take Gladys to the pictures. The evidence there is disconnected, but the substance of it you may take was that Orr, the boarder in the house, said it was strange for Manly to be taking the girl to the pictures after the engagement had been broken, and that Manly said that it was for the last time. You may fairly take that to be the history of that conversation. That statement would be very similar to the one made to Miss Campbell If it is taken by itself, but you must take all the statements together. “QUITE NORMAL” “At lunch on Friday you have there the evidence of Mrs. Cromarty and Dora, and that is conclusive as to what happened then. Y'ou may safely take it that there were only Mrs. Cromarty, Dora and Gladys in the house when Manly went to get the liver. He was quite normal. If there had been anything abnormal about him, those ! people would not have asked him to 1 get the evening meal for them. He came back without the fry, and was joking with them in the room It is for you, gentlemen, to say what you think of that conduct. Y'ou have the evidence of the taxi-driver, Macdonald, ! of what took place half an hour be- ; fore the crime was said to have been committed. “It may be that you, as men of the world, think that for a man to commit a crime of this nature under these circumstances he must be more or less insane. There is no evidence of in- 1 sanity in this case and no evidence of insobriety.” His Honour: Of course I will direct the jury that according to our • law a man is sane until proved other- j wise. “There is no evidence of a bruise on the girl's body,” Mr. Bain proceeded. “There is no evidence to say whether she was asleep or otherwise. Y’ou have to say whether you think accused committed the crime and how he committed it. There is the further fact that the knife produced to you, which was found at a ' spot away from where the crime was committed was only one of a whole collection belonging to accused, which 1 had recently been sharpened. That ! may not be greatly significant, be- ; cause it may be that the knife was 1 used more often than the others. ! Taken with the other evidence you may come to the conclusion that it j was part of the premeditation of this crime. “UNPLEASANT DUTY” “That, is the submission of the Crown,” Mr. Bain proceeded. “I have been diffident about making it, but we submit that this act was deliberately planned and deliberately carried out. The inferences I pointed out made an unpleasant task for me. Y'our task as well will be an unpleasant one. The punishment of the prisoner is no concern of yours. Just as I discharged my unpleasant duty i you have to discharge yours.” The Court then adjourned until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning, when Mr. YV. J. Treadwell, counsel for accused, will address the jury. It is expected that his address will last two hours. Little of the evidence given by the ' police varied from that given in the lower Court. Detective Walsh said that the file relating to Manly's ante- : cedents arrived from England, forwarded to the Wanganui police by the police in Surrey. Mr. Treadwell objected to a letter in this being put in ; as evidence. His Honour: It is a letter written ' by accused on a certain date and posted on a certain date. It is not worth bothering with. In any case I will not allow it to go to the jury. A poignant letter from accused to Gladys Cromarty was read, which in-1 dicated that Manly was anxious that ! the quarrel should be made up.