CHARGE OF MURDER LONDON FLAT TRAGEDY

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1926, Page 15

CHARGE OF MURDER

LONDON FLAT TRAGEDY

ALLEGED KILLING OF MOTHER NEW ZEALANDER SUSPECTED. By Telegraph—Press Asas.—Copyright. London, Dec. S. After a lapse of eight months, a New Zealander, John Donald Merrett, aged 19, has been arrested on a charge of murdering his mother, Mrs. Bertha Merrett, aged 50. • Both came from a New Zealand station to complete the sou’s education for the diplomatic service, and he entered Edinburgh University. The mother took a three months’ lease of a flat in a fashionable quarter of Edinburgh. A week after they entered into possession the mother was found shot, and the son told the police that he was seated beside tlie dining-room fire on March 17, when he was startled by a revolver shot and, turning, ho saw his mother, who was sitting at the bureau writing, fall on the floor bleeding from a wound in the ear. Doctors found a bullet embedded in her nose. The mother died, without recovering consciousness. Tlie tragedy was at first attributed to an accident, but defectives unceasingly continued their investigations. The son meanwhile began studying for Oxford, and took up his residence at Hughenden, Buckinghamshire, where he was arrested, and further charged with forging cheques for £309. He was popular in the village, and played Rugby for Badmington. It is understood he received an allowance from The Public Trustee. Wlien he was driven off in the polite car he was seen to be crying bitterly.