No. 14.
H.B.M. Supreme Court,
Shanghai,
26th June, 1933.
10
sir,
I have the honour to inform you that on June
14th before me sitting with a jury at Tientsin
Harold James Owen Hicks, charged with the murder
of a Chinese woman named Lai Shiu Chen by shooting
her with a revolver on 22nd February last, was
found guilty but insane under Section 2 of the
Trial of Lunatics Aot 1883 and was ordered to be
kept in custody as a criminal lunatic till his
Majesty's pleasure shall be known.
2. The trial lasted three days and there
was strong medical and other evidenes (including
that of the accused himself) to the affect that
Hioks, although normal in other respects, was
suffering at the time of the act from the insane
delusion that the woman was trying to poisen him.
I directed the jury as a matter of law that he was
not thereby exempted from punishment under the
Answer to question 4 in Macnaughton's Case but they
disregarded this direction and found a special ver-
diet as above.
3. Hicks came out te China in 1908 at the
age of 18 and joined the outdoor staff of the
Chinese Maritime Customs from which he was invalided
in consequence of heart trouble about ten years ago.
The Right Honourable
Sir John Simon, 0.0.8.I..
etë...,
sto.,
Foreign office,
atc..
LONDON. 8.W.1.
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