THE GUILLOTINE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 105, 25 July 1927, Page 7

THE GUILLOTINE

SENTENCE OF DEATH A GIRL MURDERED MILLIONAIRE’S CRIME By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyright LONDON, Friday. r PHERE were dramatic scenes at the conclusion of the trial of Gaston Guyot, the millionaire stockbroker, who was sentenced to death on a charge of murdering a telephone girl. The court was crowded with fashionably dressed women. Maitre Milhac, for the prosecution, painted a lurid picture of Guyot’s life, his love of gambling, which had led to his loss of over a million francs, his loves and intrigues, and his final gamble to get rid of his mistress ir order to marry his sister-in-law. While counsel for the defence was making a fervent appeal, Guyot rose with outstretched arms and cried, “I didn’t wish to kill her. I am innocent.” The foreman of the jury had Just read the verdict adding that there were no extenuating circumstances, when Guyot’s counsel again sprang up and announced that he had received a telegram from a new witness —a Paris dressmaker who claimed to have passed the motor-car during the moments of Guyot’s fatal grip. The judge rejected an appeal for an adjournment, and passed sentence of death by the guillotine. He awarde*' the victim’s mother 50,000 francs. Guyot was so shaken with sobbin.r that he had to be carried out of the court.

An appeal is certain on the ground of new testimony.—A. and N.Z.