PONSONBY MURDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1920, Page 2

PONSONBY MURDER.

PINAL SCENE IN COURT,

THE SENTENCING OP GUNN,

At ten minutes to six on Friday evening the summing up was completed by Mr. Justice Chapman in connection with the trial at Auckland of Dennis Gunn, charged with tie murder of Augustus Edward Braithwaite, at Ponsonby, on March 31st.

At five and twenty minutes past eight | the jurymen filed back into the box. The j comparative shortness of their deliberations had led to the idea that the decision was for a conviction. When it was sean that several of the jurymen were obviously suffering from mental stress, that conviction deepened, and a tense hush fell upon the court, in which a considerable crowd had gathered to see the concluding scenes of the trial. His Honor had taken his seat, and the registrar had commenced his question to the foreman, when it was noticed that the accused had not yet appeared in the dock. A pause for his arrival resulted in a deepening of the suspense. Gunn took his stand at the bar, his demeanor showing no special signs of apprehension. All through the afternoon he had displayed increasing evidence of disquietude, his face gradually assuming a ghastly pallor, but when he faced the -ourt for the last time this was no more noticeable than it had been previously. The registrar then put the question, "How say you gentlemen, guilty or not guilty?" ihe foreman promptly answered, "Guilty." "And so say you all?" the next question, received a subdued murmur of assent. j

Addressing the prisoner at the bar, the registrar then irked the prisoner if he had anything to say as to why the sentence of the court should not be passed upon him. Mr. E. J. Prendergast said: "On behalf of the prisoner, Your Honor, I have nothing to say."

JUDGE TO THE PRISONER.

Mr. Justice Chapman, laboring under obvious emotion, then addressed Gunn: "Prisoner at the bar, you have been found guilty, after a long trial in which the jury has shown the greatest care to see that you should only be convicted on the most absolutely convincing evidence That they have given an absolutely true and just verdict there can be no possible doubt. I do not wish to say more than that the evidence proves, in my mind, absolutely conclusively, that you deliberately murdered a worthy servant of the State, Mr. Braithwaite."

Assuming the black cap, His Honor proceeded: "The sentence of the court is that you be taken to the place of execution and there be hanged by the neck until you are dead." Gunn, who had listened without motion or change of expression, here turned, at the direction of the warder, and left the dock.

GOOD WORK OF THE POLICE.

"I wish to say this further," pursued his Honor, "that 1 consider the conduct of the police in this case has called for my highest commendation. They have shown the greatest diligence and intelligence, and at the same time the most absolute fairness to the prisoner who has been condemned. I do not propose to mention any particular names, because, though some members of the police force have come into greater prominence tlian Others, if I mentioned names I should be overlooking some, who, while less prominent, have been possibly equally worthy of commendation.

AN INFALLIBLE SYSTEM,

"I wish to say that this case has once and for all vindicated the system of fin-ger-print investigation and identification, if vindication were needed. This is a very notable case of a public servant murdered in his home. That the jury should have arrived at a just and true conclusion and based its verdict on finger-print evidence, is a vindication of a scientific system, which, if properly applied, is infallible. I will make a special report to the Minister embodying what I have been saying concerning police in this case."

The Court was then adjourned, and the crowd dispersed in silence.