1935-05-01 — Page 3

DRAMATIC SCENE IN

MURDER TRIAL

JUDGES AND ACCUSED AT HOUSE OF TRAGEDY

For more than an hour a woman who is charged with the murder of her 70-year-old employer took part, to- gether with her judges, in a dramatic reconstruction of the finding of the dead man at his lonely, farm at the Camp Joinet, St. Andrews, Guernsey.

The woman is Mrs. Gertrude Elizabeth de la Mare, 27. She is alleged to havé murdered Mr. Alfred Brouard, to whom she was housekeeper, by cutting his throat with a knife on Feb. 6.

She is being tried at St. Peter-Port, the island capital, by eleven purple-robed jurats, presided over by Mr. Â, W. Boll, the Bailiff of Guernsey, whose position is equivalent. to that of a judge in England.

of

Shortly after the court had nd-1said the prosecution suggested that journed, the jurats and the bailiff the charges relating to the forged went in a fleet of cars to Camp will were links in the chain Joinet to inspect the room in which evidence proving that the woman

murdered "Mr. Brouard, Mr. Brouard was found.

iL nurse

On Wednesday, Feb. 6, at 8.15 A little later Mrs. do in Mare was driven there in company with an, a telephone message was re- wardor. Behind (ceived at the police station. It had and locked doors, and with the blinda been sent because Mra, de la Mare and shutters placed in position. tad gone to the premises of a Mr. and in the presence of judges, Nicolle and had told him, "The old is dead. He has cut his police officials and defending ad- man vocate, the scene, as Mr. de in threat. Will you plenae telephone Mare described it to the police, of the doctor and the police? how she found Mr. Brouard demi, was re-enacted,

Before she went to Mr. Nicolle, Mrs. de In Mare had told a Mr. As part of the reconstruction, Bougourd that she thought Mr. Guernsey police officer lay on the routard had done something to bed in the position in which Mr.mself; that she had seen a knife by his bed; and that there was blood on the knife.

Brouard was found.

CHARGE IN FRENCH The trial was conducted with the criminal proceedings in the Chan- nel Islands,

HONGKONG

Hr. Broudrg vd kn để là Mare 88; a week," "A" really misor able pittance, considering how hard she worked for him, and how good" alie was," commented Mr. Sherwill. "But she had been given to under stand, and was perfectly justified in belloving, that at his death he would leave her everything ho possessed if she remainded fri his ¿mploy.

"The prosecution suggest that. she was not satisfied with hor wage

and har position, and contemplated leaving. Mr. Brouard's service, *****

Eccuro

"The prosecution suggest also that she determined to everything he possessed, and as a mere Incident In a predetermined plan she murdered him to enrich herself. On the very morning of his death she took to the manager of the Midiand Dank an envelope atidressed to him, containing A letter and a document purporting to be a will written and signed

by Mr. Broward. The letter asked the

bank manager to sign the will. that Helther will nor lotters were writ- The prosecution will prove ten by Mr. Brouard. They will prove they were written by pri- soner,"

JEALOUS OF ME

At the police-station Mrs, de la Mare was asked to write a state- ment. She took one and a half hours doing it, and the prosecution that what she then wrote was not her accustomed style would show

then of writing. She had not been charged with forgery.

In a statement made to Inspr

of the Guernsey Sculpher, head police force, Mrs, de la Mare said: "He was very jealous of me and would curse very much if he saw Ho me speaking to any man.

me speaking to the

I heard objected to neighbours. during the night. I went down stairs, then went upstairs, and saw him full of blood,

nothing

ban-

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Crowds on a cruiser at Swissmunds.

did not dislike him."

Mr. Sherwill's opening statement lasted nearly two hours.

SETTLEMENT DAY

SHANGHAI AVOIDE A CRISIS THANKS TO BANKS

Shanghai, April 30.

Mr. Bougourd repeated what

The first witness was Insp. W. R. "On several occasions. I have Sculpher, head of the Island Police, Mrs, de la Mare had told him to a aneleut ritual which characterises Mr. Browning, who collected milk heard him threaten to commit sui- who said that when he had caution.

from Mr. Brouard every morning. cide. He once said if the

A crisis, which threatened on the They went into the house together, nisters were high enough he woulded Mrs. de la Mare on the forgery

charge, she said: "I can prove it approach of settlement day, to-day, and discovered Mr. Brouard dead. do It. Sometimes when handling is not my writing. In this case has been fortunately avoided, sa the It is the first time in the history He was lying in bed. The pillow cord he would say, 'I think that it means to say it is me who has majority of long term financial

the Channel Islands that was saturated with blood. On the would be strong encich

committed suicide of the old man commitments have been promptly. wont has been arraigned on the floor near the bed was a blood- jab,"

It is not my writing, I know I discharged with the support of the capital charge, and the first murder stained kalfe, which looked like a

"fle always called my knife "The have not done it. That I know." leading Chinese banka, which have trial in Guernsey for 20 years. brend knife. It was suggested

The inspector produced a sheet | freely granted credit loans to souml --Central

of

for the

The indictment, a document ofthat the murder did not happen Butcher. He has told me he would | „r blotting paper profusely stained trade

nearly 500 words, printed in earlier than 6,45 a.m.

ΤΗΣ FATAL WOUND

leave will in my favour. When

establishments,

I first went to live there he said, with ink marks. "I found it in News Agency.

1 cannot give you high wages, but chest of drawers in Mrs. Qe kh Freech, the official language of the island, was framed in the curious

if you stay with me I will give you | Mare's bedroom," he said. "I hekl Describing the fatal wound, Mr.all I have. I have never seen it up before the mirror and there centuries-ukt phraseology which la

I saw the word “police."

It corres- invariably used in local trinis. By Sherwill aid: "It was very ex-will.

ponded with the word 'police' in this document she was accused of tensive, pussing through the lower

the envelope.. found in Mr. having. "either alone or with ac-end of the beard and stretching car. It severed im

Brouard's "bedroom,”- complices-in a condition dovold from ear to

of the fear of God-feloniously portant blood vessels and the wind- Alfred pipe, and caused a superficial cut on section of the bone of the spinal column, It required

killed and murdered Brouard."

In addition, the indictment gronter measure of force than could charged her with having forged have been used by deceased in his and uttered a docament purporting position in bed.

10 Te the deal man's will, either alone or with accomplices.

TRIED BY JURATS

The trial was bekl, as stated, in

"The prosecution will prove that the cut was from left to right, and the cut could not have been in- Hicted in any case by the left hand of Mr. Brouard. Yet his right

the Royal Court at St. Peter-Porthand was underneath him, and the where Mrs. de la Mare faced the

knife was on the floor to the left

semicircle of purple-robed jurats of the bed. He was right-handed." Those jurals are not only equi valent to permanent jurymen, but they are also in some degree the Cabinet of the dalund government. To be appointed a jurat is one of the highest honours that the island can confer on its residents.

At the time of his death Mr. Brouard hit a balance of nearly £60 at the bank. Mrs, de la Mare, who had been his housekeeper for two and a half years. sometimes cut stacks of hay at the farm.

11

When the police-court proceed- "She appears to have been ings were held a month ago, all vigorous, hard-working woman, the evidenco was taken in camera continued Mr. Sherwill, "I 180 This invariable practice in indiet-that word vigorous deliberately. ablo cases at Guernsey is mainly because, besides giving her due designed to prevent the possibility credit as a worker, evidence of her of jurats knowing anything of the vigorous will also tend to establish circumstances of a charge before her ability to use the force neces- they hear the complete story un-sary to inflet the hideous wound folded at the trial,

from which Mr. Brouard dled."

The two Crown officers of the Mr. Sherwill also said that living island, Mr. A. J. Skerwill, the at the farm was Mra, de la Mare's Procureur. Delegue, or Attorney-little daughter. There is not the General, and Mr. G. J.-P. Ridgway, slightest suggestion that relations the Controle, or Solicitor-General, between prisoner and Mr. Brouard prosecuted. Mrs, de la Mare was were other than those of employer defended by Advocate H. Hand housekeeper, Randell and Advocate W. H. Arnold.

COUNSEL'S BONNETS

COUNSEL AND MOTIVE Lying on the chest-of-drawers in black Mr. Brouard's room was a letter

marked "Police," which stated:

-All the advocates wore gowns, with the traditional bonnets similar to those worn by French barristers. There was only room for 76 members of the publíc, and the remainder of the big crowd waited outside,

"La Cour," cried an usher, and then the bailiff and 11 jurats filed into court with everybody stand-] ing.

The Greffier (the clerk of the court), M. Q. Lepelley, recited the Lerd's Prayer in French, and im- mediately after the accused woman was brought into court accompani- ed by two nurses in hospital uni-| form.

Mrs. de la Mare was not called] upon to plead. She had already i pleaded not guilty at the police court.

The preliminary formality of presenting the 40 Crown witnesses in a body before the jurats occupied several minutes. They were all there with the exception of Sir Bernard Spilsbury and Dr. Roche Lynch. They were all sworn to gether.

"A. Brouard, Camp Joinet Dear Sir, I am just leaving you a few lines to let you know I am doing this, as there is no blamo attaching to Mrs. de la Mare. I know it is going to be very hard for her.

"Now the reason why I am doing so. I am always suffer- ing, and I know that I am a' worry to the public and a worry to myself. One thing I strong- ly object to, that is, no relations to go into the house. They did not come before and I do not want them to go and worry her,

"I have made my will in favour of my housekeeper. I would never have found one to do what sho has done for me., She has her faults, but we all have. I hope the Lord will forgive me. A. Brouard. Funeral arrange- mentu to be left to Mrs. E. G. 'de la Mare.”

There were. A number of mla spellings in the letter and those were very nintorial, as Mr. Brouard was a man of some education and Mr. Sherwill; in opening the case, wrote correct French and English.

"I sometimes told him I would leave him. He would then cry, and would stay on. I felt sorry for him, had as he was. I cannot say

Mr. Randell (cross-examining) I put it to you that Mrs. de la I really liked the old man, but 1]Mare has two styles of writing and

that one is script and the other is not?-She has several, from what I have seen of the letters.

Replying to another question, the inepector said: "The only time I have seen her disturbed was when it was proposed that her child should be taken away from her.”

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SILVER JUBILEE ILLUMINATIONS

APPEAL TO

PUBLIC

On May 6 and 7, from 8 p.m. onwards, Statue Square, the waterfront from the Hong- kong Club to the Post Office, the waterfront at Kowloon from the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company's premises to Holt's Godowns, and several public buildings, will be illuminated by the Silver Jubilee Committee.

The Silver Jubilee Committee. hope that every householder, shopholder, hotel, hong, etc. will illuminate their houses and premises on the evenings in question and that in any event everyone will display at least one lantern.

This appeal is issued by the Silver Jubilee Committee of Hongkong.

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