CONDEMNED MAN’S SPEECH.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1923, Page 4

CONDEMNED MAN’S SPEECH.

MASON SATISFIED WITH Gni.TY” VERDICT.

LONDON. .1 ulv Ifi.

Few men found guilty of murder could have appeared less concerned titan Alexander Campbell Mason, the 22-vears-uld cabinet-maker, wlieii an Old Bailey jury on Saturday ,found that, he murdered a taxicab-driver. .Jacob Dickey, at Brixton, on the night of Mftv ib

Mason stood at his lull height and regarded tho jury with the placid interest of a mere spectator. Not a muscle moved in his not unpleasipg face when lie heard the foreman utter the word ’’Guilty.' 1 He turned his face serenely to the judge, Air Justice Rigby Swift, when he was asked whether he had anything

to say, and with a calm coherence which startled everybody, lie said: My lord and gentlemen of the jury, I cannot snv that I am surprised at the verdict. I thought that—at least I was sure ibat—taking the evidence at its face value. I would be found guilty. . . .

Hero be paused and a smile broke over bis features, and il lingered while he went on with perfect com-

posure : The only thing I was quite confident of was that the evidence would be sifted so that it would be seen where it came from, who gave it. and the kind of evidence it was.

.1 have nothing to say against the verdict. I am cpiite satisfied with it. 1 have had a fair trial.

Afy people would not help me in my defence. I wish to convey my thanks to the kind people in London who have put up the money for my defence, and ] wish to thank mv counsel for his efforts on my behalf.

If some kind gentleman—say one of the Press—just for my own peace of mind, not for anything to do with the trial, would investigate for me that slight corroboration of the conductor of the tram and communicate with me before tho time comes when T have to pay the penaly, 1 should he very much obliged. That is all, my lord. -Mason’s smile had vanished towards the end and his voice tool; on a tragic tone. His reference to the tramway-car conductor was apropos the fact that in the witness-box on Friday he declared that after running away from the scene of the murder, which he said he saw committed hv his friend, James Vivian, he got on to a tramway-car going to Victoria. As he had no money t 0 pay the fare the conductor gave him his address on a piece of paper to send the money to him. Only at the moment when the judge assumed the black cap was Mason’s serenity disturbed —and then it was only a sudden ebbing of the colour from his cheeks and a slight trembling of his lips that told of his battling emotions.

Standing stiffly at attention, with his chin well forward, he fixed his eyes unfalteringly on the judge and listened intently, while women in court buried their faces in their hands, and one woman sobbed aloud.

She was Hetty Colquhoun, who, with the man with whom she lives, Janies Vivian, provided much of the most iniportant evidence for the prosecution. She had to be helped from the court, The judge haring pronounced the death sentence, A [a son, in full command of himself still, bowed low, turned quickly on his heel, and walked steadily from the dock. Dealing with the police evidence,

Mr Justice Swift, in his summing-up, commented on the fact that no cast was taken of the footmarks in the garden left by the escaping murderer and said;

it is not for us to judge why that, was not done. Sir Richard Muir has pointedly asked that we should form no opinion on it. There may lie some explanation, but wo have not had. it. and it calls for explanation. It is incredible to believe that tho police of this City should have ignored footmarks leading right away from the scene of the crime to the house tthcie the man passed through on to the highway. There are means well known to science for perpetuating that track and they were not taken. So far from taking them, they did not even take the trouble to measure the position they were in the garden, and we nine not the slightest, evidence to-day as to where these marks were to he. found except the recollection of a policeman. That the police acted at the beginning with promptitude thotc Is no doubt, that the result of the examination of these gardens indicated . efficiency there is every doubt, and it is somebody’s business to inquire and form a judgment as to how it comes that such an obvious step in the detection of crime should have been omitted

in this ease. Referring to the fiiulini* ei «i 111 a garden, the judge said: Incredible as it seems to mo. the police in charge of the case never took any proper method of ascertaining where the glove was found.