MURDERED HIS WIFE.
EPILEPTIC’S UNCONSCIOUS ACT. Herbert Eryatt, aged twenty, was indicted at Old Bailey for murdering his wife at Leyton. Counsel for the defence pleaded that not Fryatr, hut,an evil spirit did the deed. Prisoner was possessed of a devil which was an old-fashioned, hut perfectly accurate description of epilepsy. Prisoner broke down in the box and cried: “I loved my wife truly.’ Mr Justice Swift said: “Try not to distress yourself. Von have nothing to worry about.” Eryatt continued: “I suddenly found myself trembling all over ana lost consciousness. AVlien I woke I found my wife dead. I knew I had killed her and at once got some spirits of salts my wife used for cleaning clothes and drank some.” A doctor gave evidence that the prisoner committed the deed in a state of epileptic automatism. A verdict of guilty while insane was returned.
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2636, 22 September 1923, Page 2
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146MURDERED HIS WIFE. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2636, 22 September 1923, Page 2
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