PIHA CHARGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 May 1939, Page 5

PIHA CHARGES

ARSON AND CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD GRAND JURY RETURNS TRUE BILLS. AGAINST McKAY & TALBOT. IBy Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. May 2. In the Piha case, the grand jury, at the opening of the Supreme Court criminal sessions today, returned true bills against both accused on all charges. m Gordon Robert McKay, alias Tom Bowlands, wool and skin dealer, aged 13, and James Arthur Talbot, labourer; aged 38 both Australians, are charged with improperly interfering with a dead hqman body, with wilfully setting fire to a dwelling house, and with conspiring to defraud an. insurance company of £25,000. In his charge to the grand jury, Mr Justice Fair, said that what had come to be known as "The Piha Case” had been given a great deal of publicity, and it contained the evidence of 20 or 30 witnesses. His Honour summarised the evidence and told the jury that, they might find it inconsistent with the conclusion that the soldiers’ body had been removed from its grave and that the act had been done by the accused. They might also think there was prima facie evidence that the accused ’et fire to a bach at Piha on purpose, and that that would be a natural purpose when considered in combination with their previous acts. Dealing with’ the insurances of £25.000, the amount, he said, suggested the motive of obtaining a large sum of money. Nothing in the evidence suggested any other motive, and the jury might think there was a prima facie case of intention to defraud. There had been other cases of persons desiring to disappear in which the motives had been different, such as a desire to break away from family relations. That did not seem to be the case here, as was borne out by McKay’s will, in which his wife and his son were made executrix and executor respectively, indicating that McKay was on satisfactory terms with his family. , "