SENSATIONAL TRIAL ENDED

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 55, 29 November 1926, Page 9

SENSATIONAL TRIAL ENDED

EX-OFFICER ACQUITTED ON CHARGE OF MURDER

STRANGE SHOOTING CASE

AT WHITSTABLE (Rec. November 28, 11.5 p.m.)

London, November 28.

A roar of applause, taken up outside the Maidstone Assize Court, greeted the verdict of not guilty cf murder or manslaughter in the case in which Alfonso Francis Austin Smith, a former officer in the army, was charged with shooting John Adam Tvtler Derham on August 12 by shooting him with a revolver at Stella Maris, a bouse in Tankerton, Whitstable. “Oh, how splendid,” cried Mrs. Smith, who daily waited, a pathetic figure, in an anteroom, occasionally peering through the glass door her husband in the dock. She aided tiiat she had had “a wonderful letter from him this morning. It meins we shall be together again.” Mrs. Derham, wife of the dead man (of whom it was stated earlier that Smith had been jealous and who -vis shot during a struggle between the parties at Stella Maris), said: “I am decplv distressed, but I cannot help feeling grateful that a second life is not to be taken.” The tension at Judge Avory’s Court as the relentless cross-examination of Smith dragged detail after detail of the events leading to Derham’s death snapped with the dramatic swoon of a woman juror as Sir Edward MarshallHall read a dramatic letter from.'Smith to his wife: “I have been mad lately and in hell. Now vou have made me sane, I will not leave a stone unturned to wipe out the past. I feel like a man who has been in a terrible fever and awakened from a deep life-refresh-ing sleep. Do not throw a lifebelt to draw it away again. God bless von. Smith persisted, in answer to a fire of questions, "I swear I never touched the trigger I never intended to shoot anyone I didn’t fire the revolver. I never threatened to kill Derham. I never had murder in my heart.” Smith left the box after three hours’ examination The gist of his story was that he intended to commit suicide, for which purpose he bought the revolver A love letter arrived for his wife on August 11 from Derham. When Smith read it he said he felt that all life’s hopes had gone He wired Derham to visit Stella Maris in order to discuss the situation In the course of the discussion Smith suggested that both should leave the woman for three months. She and Derham refused to agree, whereupon Smith said he would shoot himself Derham interceded, and the threesupped together. Smith again threatened to commit suicide, and prepared to remove the revolver from his hip. pocket in order to sit down. “I think Derham struck me either the instant the revolver exploded or just before.” Sir Edward Marshall-Hall contended that Smith had never contemplated murder, and appealed to the jury to free the prisoner so that he might catch the lifebelt and return to his happy life with his wife and children. During counsel’s address Smith for the first time showed strong emotion. The jury found Smith not guilty of murder or manslaughter. Smith pleaded guilty to being in possession of a firearm with intent to endanger his own life, and was sentenced to a year’s hard labour.