ESSEX MURDER DEVELOPMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19785, 8 February 1928, Page 3

ESSEX MURDER DEVELOPMENT

TWO HEN CHANGED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright, LONDON, February 6. A dramatic surprise was sprung in the South-western Police Court when two men. named Kennedy and Browne, appeared, charged ostensibly with the theft of a car. The Director of Public Prosecutions, when the names were called, informed the magistrate that the men would he charged with the murder of Constable Guttcridgc. Such intense interest was manifested that the police had to force the crowd back from the pavement, and everyone was questioned before being allowed to enter the doors, each of which was guarded hy four policemen; uiiilc peliiemeu stood between the two men in the dock.

Chief-inspector Bcrrclt gave evidence that when the men were told that they would be charged Kennedy did not reply, while Browne answered: “It is absurd; 1 know nothing about it.” HISTORY OF MURDER.

One of the most mysterious murders of recent years, the victim of which was a popular county constable, took pliicc at about 3.30 a.m. on September 'll of last year in a desolate spot near the old-world village of Stapleford Abbots, on the main road from Romford to Ongar, in Essex, The constable was Willin' i George Gutteridge, aged about forty years, who had been seventeen vears m the police. He left a widow and two children—a girl of twelve and a tuv of four. Bloodstains and tho modicn’ evidence indicated Unit after being shot the constable staggered or aas earned across tint road and placed under the hedge on the other side where lie was again shot twice—once through each eye. What the detectives have been trying to discover is: Was Gutteridgc murdered while ho was taking particulars from someone in a motor car? Did lie then scramble to the other side of the road, and, knowing himself to be dying, did lie try to write a message in ins notebook for those who found him? Did his assailant see him doing this, and thcrelore return to complete his murderous work, so that no evidence should bo left? Was it the deed of a maniac or of thieves P A number of witnesses from the Stapleford Abbots district were examined at Romford Police Station by Scotland Yard officers. Questions were asked and answered relating to a man of violent temper who lives in the neighborhood. An elderly woman and her son, who live in a cottage about ] 00yds from the place where the constable met his death, informed tho police that shortly after 3 a.in. they heard sounds as if two men were excitedly arguing or quarrelling in the road. The mother and son mentioned to each other at breakfast that they had been wakened by the voices. It was not until nearly two hours after this that they learned that a police officer had been murdered. A later development, not at the time identified as connected with the affair, was that a man named William Kennedy, who was accompanied by a woman, was recently arrested at Liverpool. The couple left a. house at midnight, and had walked a few yards, when they were spoken to by a detective, who immediately took hold of the man. A struggle ensued, and the man pointed a revolver at the detective. Following a struggle, the revolver was wrenched _ from his grasp. Twenty armed police in motor cars surrounded the house. The woman was released.