COURT IN TEARS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1024, 28 March 1912, Page 4

COURT IN TEARS.

SOFT-HEARTED FRENCH JURY.

One of those tragic-comic scenes which are so common in French justice was witnessed at the Charente Assizes at the trial of a restaurant-keeper, Eouis Hugron, for the murder of his wife and attempted murder of his young daughter.

His story was a pitiful one. His ambitions were modest. His only desire had been to make an honest living and bequeath some small amount to his daughter to help her through liie. He began

as a servant, saved money, and set up a small establishment —the restaurant of the Eighteen Saucepans in the Rue Montmartre. At first all went well and he was in the seventh heaven. Then suddenly his customers began to leave him. He had only representing his savings, left, and this was stolen from him.

In his sorrow he confided everything to his wife. To his stupefaction she burst into tears and told him that she was the real cause of his ruin. She had, it appeared, been systematically robbing the till for the benefit of one of the waiters who had captured her affections. In his utter misery he forgave her. She called on him to kill her, whereupon he suggested that they should kill one another. She agreed, but insisted that they should kill the child as well to save her from future misery.

That decision reached, the two determined to spend the last wreck of their fortune, some ,£l2, before dying. They left their restaurant, and a tour in the west, and when only fourpence was lelt determined to end their existence.

Hugron and his daughter told the story while the prosecuting counsel and the judge spoke with a quaver in their voices and the jury bent down their heads to hide the copious flood of tears, He had aimed at his daughter, he said, so as not seriously to injure her. He had fired at his wife to kill her, and had done his best to kill himself. His survival was yet another failure in his career of disaster.

The jury were so overcome with emotion that, after a thrilling appeal from Hugrou’s counsel for mercy, they found him not guilty, and the Court sobbed and applauded.