“MANY HIDINGS”

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20495, 11 May 1938, Page 8

“MANY HIDINGS”

SON TELLS STORY SWANSON MURDER TRIAL EVIDENCE FOR DEFENCE (special to Tunes.) AUCKLAND, Wednesday The explanation that accused, having been threatened violence by his father, picked up a gun with the intention of frightening him and that the gun went off, was contained in the evidence for the defence in the Swanson murder trial yesterday. The accused is Francis Borgia Spensley 19), and he was charged with the murder of his father, Robert Fitzroy Spensley, on February 7. In the box accused said his mother died when he was anout four, and he lived with his sister, Mrs Pender, and his father and his step-mother at Waimate. When he was about seven he went to Australia with his father, and later returned to his sister, Mrs Pender, at Waipukurau. At the age of 15 he joined his father on the farm at Swanson. His father was suffering from asthma then, although he was not as bad as he became later. Accused sa'id lie had to get up about 5 o'clock in the morning and help with the work of tlie farm, sometimes until after dark. He did not get any wages, but his father gave him a small amount of pocket money sometimes. His father was usually good tempered, but if he became wild he was very violent. “I usually received a hiding with a stick at such times,” said accused. Mr Moody: What kind of stick? Accused: A ti-tree stick about as thick as your thumb. Accused said he never fought back or resisted his father. He never told anybody what was going on because he did not think there was any real reason. A Heated Argument Coming to the day before the shooting, accused said his father was out and witness went on with the work until his return. His father accused him of having got into the front rooms, which he kept locked, and a heated argument arose. "It ended in him getting wild and me getting a hiding,” accused said. His fingers were blackened in warding off a blow. He got at least a dozen blows. Accused said he remembered people coming to their house a few days before. He had had a hiding on that occasion, too. Returning to the night before the shooting, accused said he went to bed and got up about quarter to five next morning. He did the usual work with the cows, and then lit the fire for breakfast. His father again accused him of not having told the truth the night before. Accused denied this and an argument arose. His father told him he would give him a hiding until he spoke the truth. “He turned round in bed, and I was frightened,” continued accused. “I turned round and picked up the gun standing in the corner and turned round. I don’t remember, but I must have pulled the trigger and it went off. My father fell back, and after that I don’t know what happened then. I must have reloaded the gun and fired a second time.” The Second Shot Accused said he sewed up the body in sacks and blankets on the middle of the floor in the bedroom. Mr Meredith: What was the necessity to fire a second shot, when you found you had accidentally shot your father?—lt was done without thinking. Accused said he was frightened to say anything about what had happened, and he told untruths about where his father had gone. In answer to further questions accused said he could safely say his father gave him a hiding once a week. “I will admit that many of them I got I did deserve," he added. Mrs Mary Ann Margaret Bryant, of Glen Eden, said that early in February she called at the Spensleys house about a house. She did not know the Spensleys. Spensley senior was very roughly dressed, and the house was in very bad disorder. The accused was crouched up in a corner of the kitchen in terror as if he had had a good hiding. “The poor boy looked as if he was Just worn out,” witness said. The case was adjourned for the hearing of the addresses of counsel. CONCLUDING STAGES RETIREMENT OF JURY (By Telegraph.—Press Association) AUCKLAND, Wednesday The jury on the Swanson murder case retired at 11.30 a.m. after the addresses by counsel, and they had not returned at time of telegraphing. UNFIT TO PLEAD ALLEGED PATRICIDE (By Telegraph.—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday. Held to be insane and unable to plead, Roland Leslie Kay, charged with the murder of his father, John Kay, at Christchurch, on March 20, was today committed to a mental hospital without standing trial. A jury \vas% empanelled to decide as to whether Kay was fit to plead and Dr. John Russell, Deputy Director of Mental Hospitals, said Kay could not follow the proceedings as intelligently as a man on trial should do. Without leaving the box the jury found Kay unfit to plead.