AN UNEXPECTED RELEASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1920, Page 11 (Supplement)

AN UNEXPECTED RELEASE.

MALARIA PLEA IN MURDER TRIAL, ti w After remarkable evidence had been » given bearing upon the effect of malaria t! and other tropical diseases on the vex- a _ vons control of a man, a verdict of "Not <* guilty" waf returned at the Old Bailey t» in the trial of Edward Semmens, aged ' 45, an engineer, charged with the mur- 8 der of his wife, Caroline Marie Sem- » mens. Semmens shot his wife "with a re- t volver in an hotel at Westbourne Ter- c race, Paddington, on June 25. P It was stated in the opening of'the £ case for the Crown that the marriage of *> the pair took place in Paris in_ 1916, J while Semmens, who was then a lieuten- p ant in the Canadian Engineers, was on v army leave. Semmens had subsequent- V ly been in Nigeria, Where he had suf- J fered from malaria and dysentery. On * his return he found that his wife was F on terms of intimacy with two officers. * He shot her in the presence oE another jj woman. * It was on the subject of the. effect " of tropical disease that the striking d medical evidence was adduced. * Dr. Griffiths, senior medical officer to j (he Brixton Prison, said that when * Semmens was brought to the prison his | face was grey. He was weak and shaky, and looked very ill. \ "OVER TH3 BORDERLAND." He seemed to have no clear impression of what had taken place. It would have taken very little to "send him over the borderland," so far as his reason ( was) concerned. He.was almost at the i end of his tether. f Cross-examined by Sir Archibald Bod- j kin, who conducted the Crown's case, c Dr. Griffiths said an individual in such ( a condition as Semmens was in would j .readily give way to impulse. Ho might ] not know he was doing wrong. ( Dr. I. J. MacAHster, of Liverpool, a < specialist in tro;'cal diseases, said that < Semmens was under his charge from May 22 to June 8. He was suffering ] from nausea and other complaints, and i had been on liquid diet for siu weeks. \ He seemed to be anxious to get home s to his wife; of whom he was very fond. , Semmens was not, in witness' opinion, , mentally stable. His pulse was fix- ; tremely soft and 3iis heart embryonic , and tight. That was due to the pres- ' ence of malaria poison. , The poison permeated the whole sys- : tern during fever, produced delirium, and : in normal time the effect was that very j trivial incidents would produce "nerve : storms'—passion. The higher nerve centres lost control over the lower centres, and the reason became temporarily in abeyance. The instincts got the upper hand and gave way to crime. Cross-examined, witness said prisoner might not have the slightest intention of shooting tho woman as he went upstairs to her room. He might have had a fit of temporary insanity. JURY'S REQUEST TO JUDGE. The jury retired for over an hour, and on their return Mr. Justice Lawrence announced that the foreman had given him the following letter: We are all agreed that there is no intention to murder. Will you please advise us the verdict to return in the circumstances. The Judge said it was not necessary that there should be the intent to murder. If there was intent to do grievous bodily harm the verdict should be "Guilty." If there was no intent to shoot so as to do bodily harm the verdict should be "Not guilty." The prisoner was either sane or insane, and if he shot with intent "to spoil her beauty" that was grievous bodily harm. If he was insane the jury must find a special verdict applicable to it person of unsound mind at tho time the act was done. The law assumed sanity until insanity was proved. The jury retired again for a few minutes, and on returning the foreman announced: "We find a unanimous verdict of 'Not guilty.' " Semmens was then informed by the judge that he was discharged.