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for dinner and Miao dined alone. A Miss Crossley, the owner of the Borrowdale Gates Private Hotel, where they stayed, told Miao that a bus from Keswick was due at 9 p.m., and offered to meet it for him, since he claimed he had a cold and had been told by his wife to stay indoors. Miao told Miss Crossley his wife would not come by bus but by hired car, since she disliked buses. At 10:30 p.m. he asked the hotel maid whether he should inform the local police that his wife had not returned from her shopping expedition to Keswick. Apparently, he did not do so: he went to bed.
Already her body had been found. At 7:30 p.m. a farmer had seen her lying in a lakeland wood, apparently asleep. She was on her back, her legs apart, an open umbrella shading her head. The farmer mentioned what he had seen to a detective-constable on leave, who, his suspicions aroused, went back to the spot and found Mrs. Miao dead. She had been strangled by three cords wound tightly around her neck. Her skirt was above her thighs, and her knickers torn. It was later argued that the murderer had attempted to simulate a rape or sexual assault. In fact, there was no medical evidence of any form of sexual violence.
It is not easy for a murderer to rape a woman unless the inspiration for his crime is sexual. A husband, who hates his wife enough to murder her, is not likely to achieve sufficient tumescence prior to, or just after, his crime. It was also not likely that a wandering necrophiliac, a Cumberland shepherd, let us say, had stumbled upon the corpse and violated it.32 One must assume the body was so arranged as to suggest sexual assault. If that were so, what was the motive?
At 11 p.m. Inspector Graham of the local police, informed of what the vacationing Southport detective had found, went to the hotel and discovered Miao in bed. He cautioned Miao, then arrested him. It is alleged that Miao asked the curious question: 'Had she knickers on?' Later, he claimed what he really said was 'Had she necklace on?' (There was no translator present at the trial, for Miao was inordinately proud of his legal knowledge and voluble half-command of English, although his ungrammatical discourse at times presented problems both for
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for dinner and Miao dined alone. A Miss Crossley, the owner of the Borrowdale Gates Private Hotel, where they stayed, told Miao that a bus from Keswick was due at 9 p.m., and offered to meet it for him, since he claimed he had a cold and had been told by his wife to stay indoors. Miao told Miss Crossley his wife would not come by bus but by hired car, since she disliked buses. At 10.30 p.m. he asked the hotel maid whether he should inform the local police that his wife had not returned from her shopping expedition to Keswick. Apparently he did not do so: he went to bed.
Already her body had been found. At 7.30 p.m. a farmer had seen her lying in a lakeland wood, apparently asleep. She was on her back, her legs apart, an open umbrella shading her head. The farmer mentioned what he had seen to a detective- constable on leave, who, his suspicions aroused, went back to the spot and found Mrs. Miao dead. She had been strangled by three cords wound tightly around her neck. Her skirt was above her thighs, and her knickers torn, It was later argued that the murderer had attempted to simulate a rape or sexual assault. In fact, there was no medical evidence of any form of sexual violence.
It is not easy for a murderer to rape a woman unless the inspiration for his crime is sexual. A husband, who hates his wife enough to murder her, is not likely to achieve sufficient tumescence prior to, or just after, his crime. It was also not likely that a wandering necrophiliac, a Cumberland shepherd, let us say, had stumbled upon the corpse and violated it.32 One must assume the body was so arranged as to suggest sexual assault, If that were so, what was the motive?
At 11 p.m. Inspector Graham of the local police, informed of what the vacationing Southport detective had found, went to the hotel and discovered Miao in bed. He cautioned Miao, then arrested him. It is alleged that Miao asked the curious question: 'Had she knickers on?' Later, he claimed what he really said was 'Had she necklace on?' (There was no translator present at the trial, for Miao was inordinately proud of his legal knowledge and voluble half-command of English, although his ungrammatical discourse at times presented problems both for
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