THAMES DROWNING CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1917, Page 3

THAMES DROWNING CASE.

TWO BOYiS CHARGED. Auckland, Aug. l.'i. In liia charge to the Grand Jury, the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) referred to the charge of murder against two boys, Tiniest Claude Gibbons and Richard Keihana.. in connection with the deatn of a little girl liatned Irene Ellen Quinn, aged six, who was drowned on June 19 at Kirikiri, near Thames, it being alleged that one or two of the boys forced her into the stream.

His Honor suid that the law provided that where the offender was under seven he was incapable of committing a crime. In the case before the jury one of the children was seven years and four days old when the girl was found in the river, so tha4. had the death occurred five days earlier he would not have been charged with the crime. The law also provided that in cases where the offender was between seven and fourteen the onus was on the Crown to show that the offender knew his act was wrong. /Phis aspect or the case would apply to the Maori boy, who was not yet nine. Personally he was not aware that there was anything to lead the jury to the conclusion that the Maori boy was conscious of wrong.

The Grand Jury reduced tile charges to manslaughter.