MURDER CHARGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1922, Page 5

MURDER CHARGE.

DEATH OF A BABY. MARRIED couple on trial. ACQUITTAL ON LAW POINT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. The trial of Stuart Cecil Harland and Heatherbelle Harland on a charge of child • murder commenced before Mr. Justice Hosking . this morning. Mr. Hanlon, with Mr. Irwin, appeared for accused, who pleaded not guilty. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr. F. B. Adams) said a child was born and murdered at the house of Mrs. Mould, Dundas Street. The female accused came to Dunedin from the south at the beginning of the year and the couple were married on April 19. A fortnight later she took a double room at Mrs. Mould’s house. The husband paid several visits from Bluff, where he was employed as a slaughterman. The last visit was early in June, when he stayed with his wife at Mrs. Mould’s till June 30.

On July 17 a boy playing in Park Street found a parcel near a bush, which he examined and found to contain the dead body of a baby. That was a month after the date, June 17, which was fixed for the murder charge,, so the body was lying out practically a month. That it did not show signs of putrefaction was due to the cold, frosty spell and the close wrapping of the body. There were two pieces of tape round the neck and the body was wrapped in a tablecloth, a towel and brown paper. CLUES DISCOVERED.

One piece of paper had the name Lange on it, and it was ascertained he was a student who took his washing to Mrs. Mould, the latter writing his name on the .parcel for identification. On tha second paper the name of Aitken, tailot, was written. Mrs Mould identified this as a wrapping in which a costume came to her. She recognised the towel as her property and the tablecloth was identified as the property of a hotel at Gore where accused stayed previously. Similar pieces were found in the room occupied by accused at Mrs. Mould’s house. The tape round the murdered child’s neck corresponded with the tape found in the room occupied by accused and the towel from the Gore hotel -was ,aleo found in the room. About the middle of June the female accused was in an advanced state of pregnancy. 9 From the medical evidence adduepd the child was considered to be a fulltime child. The female accused had denied having given birth to a. child, but admitted that she had had a miscarriage. SURPRISE OF DEFENCE.

The case took a peculiar turn when the Crown closed its ease, Mr. Hanlon contending that there was no case to submit to the jury, as the Crown had not proved that the child had had a separate entity and that it had completely proceeded in a living state from the body of its mother. His Honor agreed that this was a point which would have to be cleareSd up first, and he submitted the following question to the jury: “Are you satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the child in question met its death after completely proceeding jn a living state from the body of its mother?” The jury retired for 15 minutes and returned with an answer in the negative, and His Honor said that this meant a verdict of not guilty. The prisoners were therefore discharged.