August 30, 1934
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
JURY UNABLE TO DECIDE
caped from the detention ward of the Government Civil Hospital where prisoner was also confined, prisoner was found to have soaked off his splint with the escaping.
idea of
on
The jury would not draw unfair inferences from that
the ground that it did not appear to be the action of an innocent man for it was also reasonable to think that if accused woke up to find himself detained under a serious charge and then hears that two other prisoners are planning an escape, he would try to get away himself and thus rid himself of the whole business.
Mary Pine
With conspicuous fairness, the Assistant Attorney General had said that with reference actual charge against accused, he did not place much reliance on the evidence of little Mary Pine. to It was important, however, follow her testimony when she described the children being thrown over and said it was done by a Chinese who was the accus- ed.
been seriously advanced, and in view of the observation that was kept on the nullah banks from the moment of alarm, he would The certainly have been seen. theory that
have accused may
been
the rescue attempting to children had also not been pro- pounded.
The Letters
Accused was a man of strange ideas as the letters in the case showed, a man who, if these letters were to be believed, honestly thought
more
it a glorious thing to kill a man and was determined to commit suicide. He was rankled at having been cheated in Swa- tow, being out of work and with- out money. The Crown had ask- ed the jury to put these factors together to the
and say "What glorious consolation was his than to commit suicide in that nullah and take with him these chil- dren. That he thinks puts the Crown's proposition in a nutshell.
for the Counsel
defence had said that they could not attach any great importance to these letters. Anyone may have put them in the bag. They may ne- ver have been in that parcel un- til five minutes before he was handed over to the Police, No- one had been called to say ac- cused has preached, practiced or discussed such dreadful views. Learned Counsel had mention- ed that
with before
great
deal of
Coun- force. Further, sel
asked
it had
whether was conceivable that any man, no matter what purported to be his beliefs or how deep-rooted his intentions to commit suicide, could go to his death with children. "I can imagine” Mr. Lim had said "a man who really believed what set forth taking these letters
Her evidence was corroborated to a remarkable extent when at an identification parade she point- ed out the accused immediately and then acting on a child's instinct, ran to her mother, hid her face in her mother's
and cried.
dress
one.
The story was a strange It would not have appeared possi- ble for one person, no matter how diabolical his intentions, to throw five children one after the other into the nullah. It was a point of view worthy of consideration that the ordinary child seeing one or more of its companions seized in this way, would probably run
away.
Roland And Oliver
None of the other children had been called to give evidence the Crown probably being influenced by the good reason that they were too young for them to give evid- ence sufficiently cogent and con- clusive for the jury to act upon.
Mrs. Fairburn had said that the children were not playing in the nullah but were thrown in from the road. The defence had sub- mitted the improbability of the accused throwing the children in one after the other as alleged and put forward the suggestion that they were actually down at the water's edge when they were swept away. Against this Roland from Mr. Lim, his Lordship had an Oliver. There was the improba- bility of the children being all swept away at the same time and the further coincidence that just at that moment accused jumped in from the bridge.
The hypothesis that there may have been another man had not
a
was
with him an adult, but not chil- dren. Children are far too sacred." Theory Of Intoxication But there is another aspect
of this case.
do not quite know how to put it. A good deal has been said about it and is a matter of considerable im- portance in the event of certain happenings. The defence is that it was an accident. If you accept that and say Michael Pine probably playing about and was carried off his feet by the current, that is the end. Your proper ver- dict then is one of "Not Guilty." to the conclusion If you come when marshalling all the facts, and weighing all the evidence, that you cannot resist the con- clusion that accused by an unlaw- ful act caused the death of Michael Pine, then and then only, we come to this other aspect of the case. That is the theory or hypothesis of intoxication.
Let me remind you what this
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is based on. In a shop in Pedder Street the employees had a morn- ing meal which was shared by the accused. We know that at that meal no wine was consumed. We are entitled then, I think, to as- sume that accused went out some- time that morning, after the ineal without having up to that moment taken any intoxicants. We know nothing of his movements until late that afternoon.
Asked For Wine
We do know, however, that his capital could not exceed more than $2 at the moment. We next come across him in the nullah and the first we hear of intoxication is from the Ambulance boy who took ac- cused over and travelled with him to the Government Civil Hospital. The Ambulance boy states that accused said to him "Yum Chow" which the ambulance boy under- stood to mean "I want more wine." Dr. Valentine had said that accused was suffering from immer- sion, injuries, and drink. At the time of the incidents at the nullah he could only have been moderate- ly under the influence judging from the urinal results. He would not have been say, drunk enough to walk in front of a tram car. The contents of the urine may have been emptied in the nuilah, and His Lordship pointed out their examination might have shown a higher degree of intoxica- tion. However, accused had not offered evidence to this and the onus of establishing a defence of intoxication was on him.
In law drunkenness was not a defence but in certain types of cases as this one, such a defence could reduce the offence.
An
Three Alternatives
essential ingredient, of a crime was intent-as it was here-- and if accused was proved to the satisfaction of the jury to have been so much under the influence of alcohol as to have been incap- able of forming that intent, the offence was reduced from the major offence to the minor; in this case from homicide to man- slaughter.
The jury had three alternatives before them. They could return a verdict of "Not Guilty" because death was accidental or was not caused by accused; They could re- Guilty if they turn a verdict of " were satisfied that accused threw Michael Pine into the nullah and that somewhere in that nullah he had sustained the fractured skull which killed him, or 'Guilty of Manslaughter" if they accepted the submission of intoxication, which meant that they were satis- fied that the accused was so drunk that he was not capable of form- ing the intention to kill the boy.
E