MOUAT CASE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, 14 May 1925, Page 7

MOUAT CASE.

Husband Charged With

Murder.

SUPREME COURT TRIAL,

By Tsloffi-a-ph—Tress Association,

CHRISTCHURCH, May 13. Again there was a huge crowd, of Spectators when the trial of Frederick Peter Mouat on a charge of having murdered his wife, Ellen Louise Mount, at St. Martins on or about February HO last, was continued. Mr A. T. Donnelly, Crown Prosecutor, appeared for the Crown, and Mr C. S. Thomas (with him Mr \v'. J. Sim) for Mouat. Accused followed the evidence with keen' interest.

Lucy Prosser, married, a neighbour, gave evidence on the lines of that given in' the Lower Court as to a party at her house on February 19, as to seeing washing on the line at another date, and smoke coming from the dining room fire, and Mouat’s statement, that he was going to see if his wife was in Oamaru or Dunedin. Cross-examined, Mrs Prosser said ehe did not smell anything like burning flesh from the firo on the section. .Witness had seen trunks of clothes, which Mrs Mount had bought iii London. She had not taken those into consideration when accounting for Mrs Mount’s clothes. On the Saturday she noticed a cut ou Mouat’s arm near the wrist. Mrs Mouat had been depressed at times.

Detective John Thompson said ho Bearciied in Mouat’s garden, and found bones in a refuse heap. There were two heaps in the back yard. He got the boneS from the larger one, and filled several bags with the refuse. Ho handed the bones to Professor Gowland, of Dunedin, Later the police made a further search for bones in the garden, us.ng a sieve, in which the sml was thrown, bones being recovered in that way by the same method. Further bones were found in all cases. Professor Gowland returned the unidentified bo.nes. Witness found fragments of bones in the dining room fireplace. To Mr Donnelly : Part of Mount’s section,Was in original grass. When the soil was sieved there were several police working there, but witness took possession of the bones, and they were in his possession mit.l lie handed them to Professor Gowland. Two small pieces of dark stuff, found on the path, wero given to the Government Analyst, and one was later given to Dr. Pearson. He also gave Dr. Pearson blankets, sheets, a piece of linoleum, and a stained pillow. Mr Thomas: “Were the identified bones found in tho dug ground?”—The first bones were out of’the large heap, and the others were found in another part of the section. Exactly where did the bones come from? —All the pieces, except those in the grate, were found in the dug part of the section, or in the larger heap. ... The bath with the stains on it: Is it an ordinary porcelain bath? —Yes, with a’ roll side. The stains wero about half-way down on the roll. They were about the size of a grain of nco. but not that shape. Mr Bickerton, the Analyst, took them off W‘th a knife oil to a piece of paper. They were not scraped off. W. P. Gowland, Professor of Anatomy at Otago University, gave evidence as to the result of an examination of bones found in a rubbish' heap in Mount’s garden. Many of tho bones ho classed as being definitely human.

In the course of cross-exam.nation. Mr Thomas (for the defence) asked Dr. Gowland if it was possible to burn a body in .three or four hours? Yes. Mr Donnelly said he wished to ask Professor Gowland about half a skull found in the. district. He would identify it later. His Honour consented to the question being asked on that condition. Mr Donnelly (handing the skull to ‘witness) : “That is the left half of a skull?” ‘ , Witness : ‘Yes.” “Obviously it lias been divided, and a very good section tv as Tnrttlo. S;>ec.al knowledge would be required to divide it in this wav.” Mr Thomas: “Does it seem to he a skull used bv medical men?” AVitness: “Markedly so. It is very much Uke a skull I used for anatomical work ill respect to_ surgical operations. People with running ears sometimes have to have an operation, and there are ..holes in this skull made with a drill to show where, there is an important blood, vessel, Which must he avoided in that operation. Somebody must have handled this skull who was quite familiar with tlieso details.” AVitness continued that he had not had personal experience of a human body that had been burnt, but there were cases of destruction of tho human body by firo in American work. In one instance cited, a man weighing 160 lbs was burned experimentally. No piece of bone over two inches long was left, a lid all the pieces that could bp identified as bones could go into a large cigar box. Dr. John Cairncy, senior assistant to Professor Gowland at Otago. University,' who also examined the hones, said as to age all ho could say was that they were the bones of an adult ovei twenty vears of age. The consistent smallness of the bones pointed to their having belonged to. a female. Tho appearance of the bones was consistent with their having been fresh when burnt, but not consistent with their having been fossil or Maori bones. Dr. Robert Milligin, biolog cal chemist at the Christchurch Hospital, said that in his work he tested blood almost dailv. Ho had received from Detectivo Thompson a pillow, a portion of which was brown, which ho concluded was due to blood being present. There were bloodstains on a blanket also, and faint stains on a sheet, which lie concluded to bo blood. He examined a bathpipe produced, and found positive tests of blood, especially around the Questioned by Mr Sim (for the defence), as: to the date of his registration, witness stated that ho qualified in 1917, was at the war afterwards until its conclusion, and was for four years senior .assistant to the Professor of Physiology at Dunedin. • He had been biological chemist at the Christcurch Hospital since 1923. Mr Sim: “Don’t you think that your experience as far as analytical chemistry goes, is rather short.” —“I don’t think so. Ido not deal with analytical chemistry in the broad sense.” Ho was a biological chemist dealing with tho secretions of the human body, and he believed he was the only biological chemist employed in the Dominion. Tho stains on tho bath pipe were definitely blood, but lie could not say whether those or the other bloodstains were fren a human blood. The Court then adjourned till 10 a.m. to -morrow. A brief adjournment will bo made on Thursday afternoon, on account of Mr Massey’s funeral. The" site of the Mouat home will he visited on Friday morning bv the Judge and jurv, in accordance with a request made by Mr Thomas, accused’s leading counsel.