THE SETON MURDER CASE.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 February 1919, Page 5

THE SETON MURDER CASE.

MRS. RUTHERFORD’S LETTERS?

HUSBAND/S SUSPICIONS,

LONDON, January 31

The hearing of the chargb against Colonel Rutherford of having murdered Major M. C. Seton, of the Australian Medical Corps, was resumed at the Bow Street Police Court to-day. Mr. M. Bodkin, K.C., the prosecuting counsel, read a bundle of letters fi om Mrs. Rutherford to the colonel, dated from July 27, 1918, to November 29, which Mr. Bodkin described as an explanation of. the tragedy. The first letter, which begged the colonel to return, said “I a:m willing to forgive everything. In trying to put you out of my life I have suffered tortures, mental and physical, which are killing me. It. concluded: “Love me in all the strength of your being and'Twill not fail.”

Two months later she wrote: “I have been through hell the last week, and am coming out of it a different woman. I thought I still loved you, but I now know I don’t. I have no faith in your promises. Only away from you can I ever be happy again.” The next letter was the one read at the inquest, urging Colonel Rutherford to allow his wife to divorce him. In a letter dated November 7 she says: “You need not fight me for the children. You can never get them. You know through your vile temper and cruel abuse of me you have suffered greatly in the children’s eyes. I wish to save them the horrible scandal of the Divorce Court. The minute you walk into this house I will leave you. You won’t escape justice for deceiving me.”

Mrs. Rutherford wrote to her husband in July, 1918, before the letter previously read in Court, saying: “Have you ever known me to refuse forgiveness. Only come back to me My love for you is the most vital part of my life.”

In four letters she complained that her husband was guilty of frequent ill-usage, of an awful temper, and of deception and unfaithfulness, adding: “I have been through hell. Other men have never been more than an episode in my life: you are life itself.

Mr. M. Bodkin, in remarking l that accused returned home on January 8, commented on the letter and on the faithful character of this correspondence. He remarked that in conjunction with Major peton’s visit they might have given Rutherford a suspicion that his wife was unfaithful, resultigTn a fixed intention to kill a defenceless man.