THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CRIME.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 249, 24 March 1888, Page 5

THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CRIME.

Wellington, March 20 The following article appeared in the " Press " last evening :— *' The case of the man Carroll, who ha 3 voluntarily accused himself to the police at Sydney of the murder of a girl named Alary (Jlouston, at Woolwich, nineteen years ago, is much more interesting than moat cases of self-accusation by drunken criminals are. Whether Carroll's story is true or not as regards his own share in the tragedy there can be no doubt of the accuracy of hid facts as to the crime itself, although, by the bye, it was at Greenwich not Woolwich, that ie was committed. There are those in Wellington at this moment who knew intimately the persons concerned, and aro familiar with all the circumstances of the case. From these we learn that Miss Clouston was the daughter of highly respectable parents at Greenwich or l)eptford, and was a Sunday-school teacher, and much liked by al 1 who knew her. She seems to have been virtuous, amiable, and attractive, and in no way likely to incur anyone's hatred or vengeance. Otic of her acquaintances was a man named Walter Pook, son of a well-to-do stationer and printer at Greenwich. Pook was a youth of good character and Christian principles and was also known by his earnestness in Sunday-school work. This brought him and Miss Clouston somewhat frequently together, and it was a common occurrence for them to walk in company cither from schovl or from nou e3 ot common friends. One night a woman's cries were heard proceeding from a lane not far from Miss Clouston's place of residence and on search being made, the poor girl was found lying in the lane terribly injured by a blow on the head. She was still alive, but she died without having made any statement or given any information as to her assailant. Suspicion, however, fell on Pook from the first, solely apparently from his having been known to" wa'k frequently with the girl iv that locality, and this was terribly confirmed shortly aftei wards by the discovery in an adjoining garden of a" hammer stained with blood, which had evidently been thrown over a brick wall after bein<* used to kill the girl, and which was identified as the property of Pook. Hero was a mass of circumstantial evidence which seemed overwhelming, and Pook having beon arrested and placed on his trial, his conviction seemed almost a foregone conclusion. He, however, persistenly declared his entire innocence of the crime, and bore himself very manfully, appearing to bo more affected by the tate ot the poor girl, for , whom ho had a great regard, though there was nothing moro than friendship between them, than by tho danger in which he himself atood. His family never for a inomonb

admitted the possibility of his guilt, and his brother-in-law, a solicitor of some standing, eot to work to prepare his defence with great determination. The trial created most intense excitement in the crowded quarters of Greenwich, Woolwich, and Deptford, where both families were well known, but public opinion was strongly against Pook. Several witnesses of undoubted credibility deposed to his liavingr been seen with the murdered girl on tho fatal evening close to the spot where she was found dying, while evidence was given to the effect that the hammer which struck the blow was one Pook had bought shortly before. Tho defence was porfectly simple, and was of that chaiacter which, though mo&t effective of all when well supported by evidence, is inmost cases the most difficult of all to establish to tho satisfaction of a jury— it wa3 an alibi. Pook's counsel undertook to prove that tho accused could not be the murderer because he was at anothor place at the time when the murder was perpetrated, it was sworn by unimpeachable witnesses that Pook had beon in their society at times and from one time to another time at such a distance from the &cene of the murder, that it was physically impossible for him to bo tho mmderer. The jury, after a long consultation, came to the conclusion that they could not send the man to tho gallows in the face of positive proof that he must be innocent. Pook was acquitted, and left tho court guiltless in the eyes of of tho law. It is one thing, however, to bo guiltless in the eyos of the law, and quite another thing to escape condemnation by the public. In this case the public indignantly refused to accept the verdict of the jury, and an extraordinary tumult arose. It is certain that if Pook had fallen into the hands of the populace he would have been severely handled, but his family took care to get him properly out of the way. Upon that the mob reversing the Mosaic principle determined to visit the alleged sin of tho son upon the father. They as&ailed his stationer's shop and printing-offico, a largo two-storied building, whore the older Pook both carried on his businebs and lived, and not content with breaking the windows forced an entry into the place and destroyed tho printing plant, stock-in-trade, and furniture."