THE CHARGE AGAINST HUGH SHORTLAND. Sensational and Mysterious Affair. Accused Released and the Charge Withdrawn.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 53, 7 June 1884, Page 3

THE CHARGE AGAINST HUGH SHORTLAND. Sensational and Mysterious Affair. Accused Released and the Charge Withdrawn.

London, June 1. Hugh Shortland, arrested on the charge of murdering his wife, has been discharged from custody and the charge withdrawn.

The following account of the affair is f fora the telegraphic columns of New York "World":-

London, May 7. — A terrible tradegy is reported to-day from Devonshire. Hugh Shortland, a rich barrister from Australia, has been spending the past few months in that country enjoyingavacation. He made the acquaintance af a Miss Dimes, the daughter of a wealthy country gentleman, and connected with some of the most aristocraticfamilies, and proposed marriage to her Dimes, however, objected to Shortlands attentions, having heard some disreputable stories about the barrister's habits, which Dimes had been convinced were too much those of a dissipated and profligate man. Shortland, being clever in address and skilled in intrigue, managed to induce Dimes to postpone his final decision until he could be convinced that his impressions were erroneous, and thus maintained his entree at the residence. Taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by his probation, the Australian pressed his suit with the young lady, and finally induced her to elope with him, and they were duly married. Soon after the elopement the young lady's dead body was found in a pond on her father's estate. The head was battered in in a way that might have been caused by a violent suicidal plunge into the pond, or by a single heavy blow with a blunt, broad instrument in the hands of another person. About the time the body was discovered, Shortland, it was reported, left Devonshire, having told several persons before the discovery that his professional engagements made it necessary for him to return at once to Australia. It was generally supposed Mrs Shortland had become morbid by brooding over her estrangement from her hither, and the long prospective absence of her husband after so brief an experience in married life, and had committed suicide in a state of despondency. This view was confirmed by a letter received from Shortland soon after the finding of the body. It was dated Brindisi, Italy, where European voyagers take the Oriental Navigation Company's steamers for Levant, the Suez Canal, and Australia. The letter was full of loving messages to Mrs Shortland, and stated that the writer had had a successful voyage thusfai, and was about to embark from Brindisi for Australia. This letter completely lulled all sugpicion which might bo entertained, and the coro ner's jury found a verdict of Mrs Shortlands coming to death by suicide. To-da}, however, Shortland was recognised at Plymouth, and as it was evident he could not possibly have returned to Australia if he had sailed at the time he had stated in his Brindisi letter, an investigation \\as begun. It was soon ascertained that he had never left England at all since his marriage, and had written the Brindisi letter at Plymouth and sent it under cover to a friend at Brindisi, having it re-mailed there in order to cover his tracks. Shortland was promptly arrested and taken back to Devonshire, where the trial, which promises to be one of the most sensational in English criminal I'ecords, will be held. All efforts to find a reason for the murder have thus far failed, and Shortland refuses to make any utterance upon the subject.