MURDER BY A BURGLAR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 708, 10 December 1881, Page 3

MURDER BY A BURGLAR.

A most Hleous and wanton murdtr than that which ha* just heen committed at Kingston, Surrey, has seldom been recorded. Constable Aitkins, wlio died • u 23rd September in great agony, was sh't down, not while attempting to ate" a Jobbery' or to arrest a thief, rut in the simple routine ex'tution of his duty, without reason and without excuse. Pa.isinK tlnough the avenue nf The Knoll, afc Kingston, which premiss chanced to be at tue moment attacked by burg urs, he was fired at throe timos, by the aid of a bull's eye lantern, and mortally wounded before he had time so much as to move a step. So little cause waa there for bis *SB»s&m*~

tion that lie was a complete stranger to ■ tlie- -•be»t,.upwJL_.R.h|pJ.i u j)\? '& «°-l wij * situate. Another policeman, whose duty itw:s to pass that way, was absent for one evening, and AtU'-'s was app- hired in his place by accident. These are ihe sihiple facts srurr■>unding J ß .crime ol such hruta'ity and needless wickedness as to-rouse the indignation of the whole well-orde ed public." The "Kitioll is a peculiarly lonely bonse, and to it the thieves—for t:x re were probably two of them— must have directed their >teps with (he absolute intention not only to rob, but to k'O) anyone who offered them the slightest resihtance. Tlie crinie of mnnl.r evidently had no terror ior them; had Constable Atkins not appeared »n the scene, they would have coolly butchered anyone who did.