PARTY’S TRAGIC END

Evening Star, Issue 21749, 18 June 1934, Page 11

PARTY’S TRAGIC END

MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE LONDON, June 1. A tragedy after a girl's twenty first birthday party, was outlined at Ealing (London) Police Court to-day, when Richard Wooldridge, a prominent public school footballer, was committed for trial on a charge of the manslaughter of Frank Smith, formerly assistantpurser in the P. and 0. Line. Evidence was given that, when the party had terminated, Wooldridge and Smith and two girls and three youths departed in a motor car. A dispute arose as to what roadhouse .should be visited. Smith insisted on stopping the car, and an altercation occurred on the pavement. Wooldridge, aftei four times asking Smith to re-enter the mr, knocked him down. Apparently his head struck the kerbstone, resulting in a double fracture of the.skull. Wooldridge picked him up, bleeding, and drove him to an ambulance station. A girl member of the party said that too much drink made Smith troublesome. Wooldridge, after the _ altercation, showed the utmost consideration for Smith’s comfort, she added, and Wooldridge was perfectly sober.