DEAF MUTE'S CRIME.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1876, 9 October 1913, Page 7

DEAF MUTE'S CRIME.

frMURDER OF 'A BOY. By Mesrapli—Proee Association—Copyright Melbourne, October 8. When the boy Clarence Freeman was arrested on a charge of murdering a bov named Anderson at Warparilla, ho maintained that the crime liad been committed by' a third boy. Tho police, with a view to testing tho credibility of Freeman, brought Freeman 'into tho presence of a boy attending the same school as Anderson, Freeman, by signs, indicated that this was tho boy who had murdered Andorson. Tho boy was not perturbed; lie laughed, and said: "I was driving sheep the day of the murder." The police fully verified this statement, and the boy was not. detained. Freeman, who is nged 14 years, is almost deaf and dumb, and mentally deficient, was arrested on a charge of wilfully murdering the boy .Tohn Anderson, aged 15 years, whose mutilated body was found in the Warparilla district, near Eclmea. The police, accompanied by the arrestee, went to thescene of the tragedy, where, by the medium of signs, interpreted by a step-brother, Freeman indicated that he. Anderson, and a third boy, had been bird-nesting, and that the lastnamed deliberately shot Andorson while he was up a tree, and then sever.ed the head from the body. \