ARSENIC MYSTERY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1390, 16 March 1912, Page 5

ARSENIC MYSTERY.

SEDDON SENTENCEDTO DEATH By Telceraph-Frees Association-Copyright London, March 11. The trial has concluded of Frederick Henry Seddon nnd his wife on the charge of poisoning Miss Eliza Barrow, an elderly spinster, in September last. Soddon was found guilty and sentenced to death. His wife was acquitted. On hearing tho verdict Seddon clasped his wife and kissed her passionately. Tho woman, convulsively sobbing, was gently removed from the dock. Seddon, erect and defiant, made- a quarter of an hour's unfaltering .speech. He protested his innoconco. Mr. Justice Buckuill agreed with tho verdict, and commented on the greed of gold as the motive for the crime. The Judgo almost broke down when sentencing Seddon. DECLARES HIS INNOCENCE. SEDDON GIVES NOTICE OF APPEAL. (R«c, March 15, 9.55 p.m.) London, March 15. Mr. Justice Bucknill, in summing up in tho caso against Mrs. Seddon, said it was not parallel with her husband's, but the presumption that a woman was acting under her husband' 3 coercion did not npply to murder. After the verdict, Seddon reargucd tho ovidence. He said he was surrounded by a set of circumstances from which thero seemed no way of extricating himself. Hβ declared before the Great Architect of the Universe that he was not guilty. Mr. Justice Bucknill, in sentencing Seddon to death, said he agreed in' the acquittal of Mrs. Seddon. Seddon has given notice of appeal. STORY OF THE CRIME. Eliza Mary Barrow, who had possessed considerable property—leasehold, and shares, and money—died on September 11 in the houso of Frederick Henry Seddon, G3 TollingtonPark, N., whore sho had been n lodger sinco July, 1910. The body, which had been interred at Finchley, was exhumed by order of the coroner, nnd at the inquest, which began on November 23 and concluded on December 14, Dr. Willcox, senior scientific analyst to tho. Home Office, said it contained arsenic beyond tho quantity of ft fatal dqso. Tho jury found that tho woman died from arsenical poisoning feloniously administered. Tho police meantime, on December 4, arrested Mr. Seddon, a district superintendent , for tho London and Manchester Assuranco Company, and on the following day charged him at North London Police Court with tho murder of Miss Barrow. On January 15 Mrs. Seddon, aged 34, was arrested and charged with her husband. Tho property which Miss Barrow possessed, according to the evidence given, comprised .£I6OO in India stock; bringing in £52 a year; tho leases (with 18J years to run) of the Buck's Head public-houso, Camden Town, nnd an adjoining barber's shop, bringing a clear rental of J-120 a year; ,£2OO in a savings bank; and about £100 which she kept in gold in a cashbox. ' - ' • Mr. Seddon, who gave some evidence at tho inquest before, his arrest, said Miss Barrow assigned the leases to him for a life annuity of £52; gave him tho stock, which he sold for .£1520, for an additional annuity of i£lo9 45.; the total annuity being at the rate of £3 2s. a week. The India stock Mr. Seddon said he invested for himself in leases and tenements in tho East End which brought him in a net income of £200 n year.' Miss Barrow on June 19 drew her £216 out of the savings bank, and it could not bo traced. In regard to tho £420 which "she is-alleged.<.to*"hnvb hadiiniher. cashbox, Mr. Seddon said'that after her death he found only £4 10s.