MURDER IN A WOOD

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8341, 30 January 1913, Page 4

MURDER IN A WOOD

FARM LABOURER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RILLING GIRL.

CREME WITHOUT MOTIVE.

LONDON, December 22.

No motive could bo assigned for thfla murder of u little girl named Mabel Ana. Maryan, for whicli Albert Rumens, a iarni labourer, aged If, was sentenced to death at Lewes.

in opening, Mr Gill mentioned that prisoner was charged with the murder of a little girl who lived next door with her mother and father to whore tho prisoner had resided. Consequent!)* the prisoner know the little girl well., their relations being of a perfectly friendly character. it. a ling with tho circumstances, counsel said tho facta were in a very narrow compass. Mo related how screams were heard in the Buckland Mill Wood at \\ adhurst, and to a man, who was afterwards identified as the prisoner, coming out of the wood. When spoken to by the child's mother, ho said that ha and. Mabel had been blackberrying, and that he had left her in the wood, adding that olio would ho home presently. Tho mother said, '‘Arc you sure? I am not so sure.” Prisoner made no response. Cater, Ire was apprehended and identified by a gamekeeper as being tho man seen coming away from the body of the child whicli was discovered lying on tho ground. The clfeot of tho medical evidence, said counsel, in conclusion, was that the child had met its death by suirocauen, and that death hud been, caused by tire exercise of considerable violence, violence taking the term of a very strong pressure on the neck of tho child, so strong that a bone was fractured at the hack of the neck, and there were marks where the thumb ot the man had gone into the skin of the child, while the face of the child had been forced against tho ground in such n way as to flatten the nose. Sarah Alice Caroline Maryan, wife of Prank Maryan, the mother, of the girl, siiokd to her child Ic&vinjj home & can and crooked stick, to get blackberries. Sho vas Quito happy and m good health at Ul9 time. About 8 o clock in the evening prisoner came U> the doer and said. “Mere is Albert Rumens! What do you want with him? Witness then related the conversation given by counsel in opening. Edwin Gilford, gamekeeper, living at Wadhurst, said that on September Gth ho was at tho bottom of Buckland Milt road, and heard screams coming Horn, the top side of the wood. He heard two or three screams, apparently Mom a female, and then they stopped. Ho wont in. tire direction of the screams, and came out at the meadow at the topo, th« wood. There ho saw a man and a woman about ten yards In tho wood. Ho called to the man to come out, and fie replied, "AU right. I will come out. He then got up and came towards witness at tho hedge, and stood a foot oil him. Ho was the man witness had seen on tho previous Wednesday. When ho came to the hedge witness asked him to bring tho other person out, and he then, got over the hedge into tho meadow, whero witness was standing. Tho man then said, “Sho knows her way out; she will come out presently." Pointing towards Stivers lane at the other side of the meadow, tho man said he wanted to go across there. Ho then loft, and vnt> ness, after calling ont to the person on the ground to come out, and receiving noreply, went to the spot. There ho found a little girl whom he lifted up iu hia arms. Ho then discovered that she was dead. She was lying face downwards and he noticed blood on her face and head, while a red handkerchief was clenched, tightly an her hand. Mo then wont in search of the man. When the man came to him ho put his hand frequently to lira cap and witness then noticed blood on the back of his hand. Afterwards he saw a number of men in Stivers lane and by the lights of two motor cam was able to recognise the man he saw in tho wood with tho girl. There was a pause of a minute and A half before the man came ont o ftho wood after he called to himKISSED A GAMEKEEPER. Mr Graeme: Was ho upset - when bo came but of the wood? I think ho was rather frightened— he give you the impression of having killed someone during tho last few minutes? 1 would not say that.—Did he try and prevent you going to the body? t No, sir. Witness further said, in reply to questions, that he was with another gamekeeper, named Wells, when he saw prisoner previously. The latter asked Wells for a match, Mr Graeme: Am I right in saying that he then put his arm round Wells's neck and kissed him ? Yes, sir. Mr Charles Herbert Fazan, medical practitioner, Wadhurst, gave medical evidence showing that no outrage had been committed on the litle girl, and that the cause of death was suliocation by pleasure on the side of the throat, and by the forcible pressure of the nose and mouth upon the ground by force applied from behind to tho back of tho neck nnd the back of the head. , By Air Graeme. The forcing of a handkerchief into the child's mouth would not have been sufficient to cause all the injuries lie lound, and it was possible for tha child to have tom the handkerchief out of her mouth before a certain bone, which he described, was fractured in the head.

Mr Graeme: You agree with me that a crime of this sort could only have been committed by a man who is non compos mentis? Witness; I can hardly say that, as we read of crimes being committed without apparently any motive. —But assuming that there was no motive? Then, only a brute or a lunatic would do such a ihmg.—Would it be the sort of crima that an epileptic would commit? Epileptics could commit any crime.—At any time? Yes. —And without any reason? Ves. Thus conßaied the ca>el tor tbs Crown, and speeches by counsel followed. 51r Gill spoke briefly, on.y occupying the atteution of the court for iivo minutes. All murders that were committed, except ii) very exceptional cases, were committed by men in an abnormal condition. If defence of insanity were put forward it had to be established by the person who put it forward. Mr Graeme, for the defence, asked the jury to banish from their minds sympathy with tho bereaved parents, and submitted that the crime was committed by a man whose mind was obsessed by disease. His explanation was when the screams wear uttered, prisoner, for reasons best known to himself, was determined that those -creams should not be heard, and to prevent that he placed the handkerchief in the child's mouth, in trying' to stifle her cries, and the child died as the result of violence.

The judge, in summing up, said that if tho man intended grievous bodily bar? and took life he was guilty of murdr lie could not help thinking himself tb most murderers were not sane. Tl. were all persons of abnormal dispositiThere was no evidence to -how {flat

man was suffering from any derai: meats of the mind that would make h. inespoi sible for his actions. 'After retiring for about twenty min utes, tho jury returned a verdict of “Guilty.” and the death sentence wa? passed.