SERIOUS CHARGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 December 1938, Page 2

SERIOUS CHARGE

ATTEMPT TO USE CHLOROFORM. ACCUSED ADMITS GUILT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) GISBORNE. December 21. “I was in love with the girl and 1 did not want to kill her,” was a passage in a statement allegedly made to the police by Frank Victor Michie, aged 21, who appeared before Mr E. L. Walton, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court this morning on a charge of attempting to administer chloroform to a 17-year-old girl with intent to injure her. | The girl gave evidence that she had known the accused for two years and had been keeping company with him. They were frequent visitors to each other’s home. A week ago she went to a dance with him but they had an argument and she went home with another boy. On Friday night she went to bed at 9.30 p.m. and was awakened at 1.30 by someone standing at the head of another girl who shared the bed with her. She screamed and put oh the light, the intruder running away. Later she found a handkerchief on which there was chloroform. The second girl gave evidence that she was awakened by the smell of chloroform and felt something on her face. A chemist’s assistant gave evidence of having sold a bottle of chloroform to accused, who said he wanted to operate on a cat. Detective C. P. Belton produced a statement in which accused admitted the facts but said he had only put a' couple of drops of chloroform on the handkerchief and did not intend to harm the girl but only put her to sleep. Accused pleaded guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court, Wellington, for sentence.