WIFE SHOT.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1920, Page 5

WIFE SHOT.

ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE HUSBAND IN THE DOCK CASE OF UNUSUAL FEATURES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christehurch, Last Night. Frederick Malaqnin was charged hefore Mr. McCarthy, S.M., at the .'Magistrate's Court, with having, at New Brighton, on November 7, attempted to murder his wife, Irene Ruth Malaquin, by shooting at her with a revolver. Mr. A. T. Donnelly prosecuted for the Crown, and Mr. M. J. Gresson represented the accused.

Mrs. Malaquin stated that on November 6 they retired about 11.30 p.m. or midnight. Witness went to sleep, and some time later woke, feeling a pain in her head. Her husband was standing beside the bed, and he said witness had a hole in her face, and suggested that she had shot herself. She thought that someone outside must have shot her. ■Her husband suggested that he should go for a doctor, but she would not let him, as she was afraid to be left alone. Her husband called in a doctor on Sunday morning and she was ordered to the hospital.

At the hospital on Monday her husband told her he had shot her accidentally, and had admitted that to the police. Witness was very much surprised, because up till then she had no idea who it was who had done the shootins. He explained that he thought he heard someone in the house, hut a search proved that he was mistaken, and while putting his revolver under a pillow it discharged. She asked him why he had not told her before, and he said ho whs too scared to do so. ' She had lived happily with her husband, and there was no reason why he should want to injure her. The bullet was removed from her head at the hospital. She thought the present charge against her husband was sheer nonsense. Since coming out of hospital she had been living with him, and as far as the present proceedings were concerned she was on her husband's side.

Dr. Glasgow, of New Brighton, said Mrs. Malaquin, when he was summoned to attend her, said she did not know how the injury was incurred, but she suggested that she had shot herself, or that someone- outside the house had shot her. He saw Malaquin on Sunday evening,. but he could not offer any explanation for the shooting, except that possibly his wife had shot herself, or that he had done it in his sleep.

Dr. Gould said that the bullet wound was in the right temple, and apparently it had been fired in a downward and inward direction. The hair around the wound was singed and the skin scorched, indicating that the weapon had been discharged at close range. It was unlikely that such a wound was selfinflicted. If the woman was lying on her hack when her husband was placing the revolver under a pillow it would have been possible, by an accidental discharge of the weapon, to have caused the injury, but witness did not think it probable. Dr. Aclnnd gave corroborative evidence, but adding that if the man was standing outside the bed Mrs. Malaquin would have been deliberately'shot.

At this stage the Court adjourned till to-morrow.