A NOTABLE TRIAL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9064, 3 February 1908, Page 7

A NOTABLE TRIAL.

The trial of Robert Wood for the murder of Emily Dimmock at Camden Town ranks as one of the most extraordinary in the history of English trials. A London correspondent describes it as “one of those tremendous dramas of life and death that occasionally shake the heart of a community. ’ ’ The whole case was squalid. “Wood was a young manrof immoral life, and the murdered girl was no better. But the public chose to interest itself in the case, and to behave as the British 1 public has never yet behaved in an affair, of this kind. Every day the court was crowded, and the case was followed with intense interest by distinguished and undistinguished people. The judge began to sum up against Wood, but turned round towards the end and told the jury that if certain evidence was considered unreliable the prosecution’s case must fail. The audience could contain itself no longer, and the summing up was interrupted by cheers and cries of “True, true,” and “Thank God.” When the jury retired the silence of the court contrasted with the roar of the immense crowd outside. When the verdict of “not guilty” was brought in the public ‘in the court lost all control of themselves. There was cheer after cheer, which the Judge tried in vain to suppress. Hats and handkerchiefs were waved frantically, and women cried for joy. Only when prisoner’s counsel rose to ask for his client’s freedom did the applause stop. When the thousands outside heard the result they cheered continuously for five minutes, and the demonstrations did not cease altogether for half an hour. Three hundred policeman were on duty at the point ‘Never since the riotous uncurbed scenes which gave the word ‘ maffick’ to our language has such a sight been seen.” Everyone was for Wood, and a portion of the crowd actually sang, “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” There were two or three reasons for this. Wood was by no means wholly bad, and he had shown extraordinary nerve when his life was at stake. The principal witnesses against him was his discarded sweetheart, resentment against whom ran so high that she was not safe in the streets. There was also a feeling that the police should not have Wood on such slender evidence. Wood’s self-control was wonderful. During the retirment of the jury he employed “himself sketching the Judge, and was, apparently, the cool est person in court.