CO129-544-18 Custody of H.J. O. Hicks- criminal lunatic 26-6-1933 - 21-9-1933 — Page 10

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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