ARSON AND THEFT

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1926, Page 11

ARSON AND THEFT

FARMER'S STRANGE ACTS INSANITY PLEA SUCCESSFUL. COMMITTED TO MENTAL HOME. A unanimous expression of medical opinion from six doctors that the accused was so mentally unhinged as not to be responsible for his actions turned the scales of justice in favour of Harris Leonard Spence in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday, and after a short retirement the jury found him not guilty, on the grounds of insanity, of three charges of arson ami one of theft. The Chief Justice (Hon. C. P. Skerrett) made an order committing Spence to Porirua Mental Hospital until the pleasure of the Minister of Justice be known. The charges arose out of Spence’s strange conduct at Lower Mangorei, where he set fire to the oaten stack and the cowshed of one of his neighbours, and to the haystack of another, as well as stealing from him a separator Bowl and parts. The acts were shown to have been committed while Spence was under the delusion that his friends on the neighbouring farms were persecuting him, and. that they expected that he should retaliate in order to show that he was a man. The case for the Crown came to a conclusion on Monday evening. Yesterday morning, Mr. R. H. Quilliam. for the defence, admitted the whole of the offences as described by the witnesses for the Crown, and previously admitted by Spence himself in a signed statement, but said that the medical evidence he would call would show conclusively that Spence was at the time of committing the offences, in such a state of mind that he was not responsible, for his actions. MENTAL DOCTOR'S CONCLUSIONS. Dr. lizard, medical superintendent of Porirua Mental Hospital, said that he had had an opportunity of studying accused’s mental condition over a period of about two months while the prisoner was under his care, and he had come to the conclusion that the accused was suffering from a fixed, systematical delusional insanity, his delusions being in the nature of assumptions of persecution, suspicion and reference. By reference he meant that the individual, in conversation or listening to other people’s conversation, often put a wrong interpretation on What the other people were saying, this interpretation generally applying to himself. Often a person in such a state of mind was able to keep his ideas, delusions and suspicions to himself for a considerable time, but the time would come when he was unable to control himself any longer, and then by some act of his, perhaps of violence or even homicide, he disclosed his real mental state.

Witness judged the accused's mental condition to have begun about two years ago. About that time various things happened. Trees of his were burnt down near his boundary fence. This he attributed to his next-door neighbours, and considered it an unfriendly act, in spite of the fact that he had always been on good terms with his neighbours. Interference occurred with his stock, and he concluded that because certain calves would not run with their mothers they had been changed. Some sheep were lost. Accused’s brother came to stay with him, and as a result of a conversation between the two men, accused became convinced that his brother was in league with the neighbours in the supposed persecution. He believed that only by retaliation could he show that he was man enough to stand up against them. BEST FRIENDS SUSPECTED. On another occasion accused employed a man to construct a dam for him. The man did not build the dam according to accused’s own idea of how it should be built, and he felt that this was part of the scheme of persecution. The dam was ultimately washed away. Accused's sister came to stay with him, and after he had talked over with her the matter of the failure of the dam, he became convinced that she knew all about it previously and was a party to the scheme of persecution.

He became more than ever satisfied that reprisals were necessary to show the pteighbours that he was a man. He began to steal from them, tools and various more or less small articles at first, and hid them. Later these tools disappeared, and he formed the opinion that the neighbours had searched his property and found them. He felt that the neighbours expected him to do something of a more daring nature, so he .burnt their ricks, etc. He bad come to the conclusion, said Dr. Tizard, that the accused, although he realised to a certain extent the effect of his actions, did not fully understand the gravity of such actions, as his mental state, judgment and reasoning power were so coloured by his delusions that it was rendered impossible for him to fully realise the gravity of his acts, hi conditions of such a mental disease there was always confusion of thought. The individual was unable to think in a purely rational manner on account of his delusional state of mind. Accused was not, therefore, in the opinion of witness, responsible for his actions. The influenza from which he was said to be suffering about, the time of tiie offences, and the home conditions under which he lived, would aggravate the mental disease. Apart from the legal aspect in the present case, the accused was, in the opinion of witness, certifiably insane, and he thought it very fortunate that nothing of a more serious nature had occurred than did occur in connection with accused’s actions.

OPINION QUITE DEFINITE. Under cross-examination, witness said that he was quite convinced that when accused committed the offences he had passed the border-line of sanity into a state when he was not responsible for his actions. A complete endorsement of Dr. Tizard’s conclusions in every detail was given by Dr. E. A. Walker, who had attended accused since 1909, Dr. G. Home and Dr. R. Brewster. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr, C. H. Weston). intimated that he had consulted two doctors on behalf of the Crown, and they also endorsed Dr. Tizard's opinion after making an examination of the accused. His Honour directed the jury to find the accused not guilty on the grounds of insanity. After a few minutes’ retirement the foreman returned to ask His Honour whether, in the event of

the jury bringing in a verdict of not guilty, the accused would be relieved of the obligation to compensate his neighbours for the loss they had sustained through his action. His Honour replied that this was a matter that did not concern them at all in considering their verdict, aiid after a brief interval the jury returned with a verdict in accordance with the Chief Justice’s direction. His Honour made an order that the prisoner be kept in strict custody' in th? Porirua Mental Hospital until the pleasure of the Minister be known-