CONDEMNED MAN MAY BE INNOCENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5312, 27 January 1947, Page 5

CONDEMNED MAN MAY BE INNOCENT

Confession By Man Who Is His Double LON'DON, Jan. 26. Walter Graham Rowland, sen-. tenced to death five weeks ago for the murder of a woman in « Manchester, was told in the condemned cell, Strangeways gaol, yesterday, that another man, said to be his double, had confessed to the crime. His solicitor told the Daily Mail that a prisoner serving six months for housebreaking, in Walton gaol, Liverpool, had confessed to the murder in a voluntary statement made to a Manchester deteetive. The solicitor added that he was communicating with the Clerk to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which is due to hear Rowland's appeal on January 27. Detective-Inspector Stainton, who recorded the alleged confession, is submitting a report to the Director of Public Prosecution, and Rowland's solicitor is endeavouring to get the hearing of Rowland's appeal delayed and the alleged confession fully investigated. N Kept Protesting Innocence Rowland has throughout protested his innocence and when sentenced by Mr. Justice Sellers at Manchester Assizes on December 16 he said: "May God forgive you. You have ecndemned an innocent man." The murdered woman was Olive Balchin, wfio was found on October 20 on a blitzed site in Manchester! She had been hattered with a hammer. Rowland was previously sentenced to death in 1934 for t the murder of his two-year-old daughter, hut was reprieved and the sentence reduced to life imprisonment. He volunteered for the army while serving his sentence and was released in 1943. He returned to Manchester after demobilisation seven months ago.