NSW: Victim s mother questions the place of truth in court

AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-1999
NSW: Victim s mother questions the place of truth in court

A woman has questioned the place of truth in the justice system after the man who shot
her daughter dead in a hospital bed was acquitted of murder.

PAULL (Paull) FRANCIS MCLAUGHLIN, 22, was convicted yesterday of the manslaughter of
16-year-old ADELE SMITH as she lay in the Goulburn Base Hospital in May last year.

But a New South Wales Supreme Court jury accepted MCLAUGHLIN'S explanation that he
fired the fatal gunshot accidently while attempting suicide with a faulty rifle.

ADELE'S mother MARY SMITH says she can't understand how the jury disregarded the facts
pointing to murder.

She says the family's faith that truth must win through has been shattered by the verdict.

Ms SMITH says ADELE was murdered and that a gun was taken into a hospital, a place
where you'd expect someone to be safe.

MCLAUGHLIN will be sentenced early next year.

AAP RTV rmg/mfh/as/rt

KEYWORD: MCLAUGHLIN (CANBERRA)

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