GORSE HALL MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 910, 27 October 1910, Page 2

GORSE HALL MURDER.

TRUE BILL AGAINST WILDE. London, October 21. The grand jury found a true bill against Mark Wilde, accused of the murder of Mr George Harry Storrs, at Gorse Hall, in November last. The trial of Mark Wilde, an ex-soldier of Stalybridge, on a charge of murdering Mr George Harry Storrs, at Stalybridge, contactor at Gorse Hall, on the night of November Ist last, is without parallel in the history of criminal jurisprudence in the country, for he is the second man charged with the crime. It will be recalled that another ex-soldier, named Cornelius Howard, was tried at the Chester Assizes in March last on the same count, and was acquitted, he proving an alibi. The proceedings in the present case are therefore creating- enormous interest. Mark Wilde appeared before the Dukinfield magistrates on a remand, when it was explained that he had been arrested the previous week at. Knutsford gaol, after undergoing two months’ imprisonment for assaulting James Bolton and Gertrude Booth, as they were walking along Hough Hill, near DukinBoUon being stabbed in rhe neck by a bowie knife. Mr Seward Pearce appeared to prosecute on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions, while Mr Nelson, a coloured barrister (who defended Howard in the earlier stages), instructed by Mr Chambers, of Denton, represented the accused.

Mr Pearce, in opening the case, said that since the trial of Howard new facts had come to the knowledge of the police, and they were of such a character that it became the clear duty of the police authorities to re-open the matter. He then proceeded to recapitulate the circumstances of the murder on November i, and recalled the fact that on September 10 Mr Storrs’ house was shot at by some person unknown.

Mr Pearce continued: I shall offer evidence that he was in posession of a revolver, which witness will say was the revolver used at Gorse Hall. It was defective in some of its mechanical details, and the police found in the prisoner’s house after his arrest a number of service bullets with nickel coating, exactly corresponding to the nickel coating on the revolver found at Gorse Hall. What was prisoner’s explanation ? He admitted that on November r he had two revolvers, but said that after the Gorse Hall murder he took both revolvers to pieces and scattered the parts in different places in the country. The reason for doing that, the prisoner explained, was that he was afraid of being connected with the Gorse Hall crime. That seemed to be a significant reason which would require serious consideration. The police officials were able to find none of these parts on search being made along with prisoner.