SENSATION IN COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 February 1922, Page 4

SENSATION IN COURT.

WITNESS WITHDRAWS EVIDENCE SAYS IT WAS A MISTAKE, By Telegraph.—Pres* Association. Auckland, Last Night. At the Supreme Court to-day, Thomas Fearon was found guuty of stealing £35 from the person of Alfred William McGuire. A sensational development arose. Maude Isabella Brookes, a divorced woman living with Fearon, stated that her evidence in the lower court and her statements to the police were a mistake. She had been drinking and a certain amount of jealousy caused her to accuse Fearon of making a statement to her to the effect that a man. at the Soldiers’ Club was ill and they had arranged to get his money and divide it. The Judge, in summing up, said the jury would have to consider why the woman’s first statement coincided with facts related by other witnesses. Counsel for the defence asked for the case to be stated for the Appeal Court to determine whether the depositions made by Brookes and her statement to the police should have been admitted. Another point was that witness had been improperly treated as a hostile witness. Counsel alfu> asked leave to apply to the Appeal Court for a new (trial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of evidence. His Honor said he would give his decision on the first two points tomorrow.