OTTAWA MURDER TRIAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 128, 15 March 1950, Page 3

OTTAWA MURDER TRIAL

SEQUEL TO AIRLINER CRASH MAN SAID. TO HAVE HAD BOMB PUT ON PLANE (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) OTTAWA, March 13. The Crown to-day demanded the death penalty for Albert Quay, aged 32, who is charged with having murdered his wife, Mrs Rita Quay, by having a home-made time-bomb placed aboard an airliner last September. Mrs Quay and 22 others died in a mid-air explosion. The trial is being held at Quebec. The Crown contended that Quay wanted his wife out of the way so that he could marry a 17-year-old waitress, Marie-Ange Robitaille. The prosecutor (Mr Noel Dorion) told the jury: “In the face of the evidence produced, a human spirit cannot but see a criminal hand in this tragedy. It took the place of God Himself, and timed the death of those 23 persons.” The defence counsel (Mr Gerard Levesque), in his summing-up, de' scribed Quay as an unfaithful but considerate husband. He said: “Quay had a misti-ess, but he never abandoned his wife and family. Lots of men haye mistresses at some period in their lives. Does that mean that they are murderers?

“If the aeroplane crash was a crime, then it was the most atrocious and most barbaric in history, hut this does not mean that Quay is responsible for the abominable tragedy.” During the trial, the Crown alleged’ that Quay had a time-bomb placed in the aircraft through another woman friend, Mrs Arthur Pitre. , In her evidence, Mrs Pitre said that Quay had told Tier that the parcel she placed aboard the aircraft at his request contained a bomb. Mrs Pitre said Quay first told her that the parcel contained a statue, but 10 days after the crash, when the newspapers had reported that a "mystery woman” had placed a parcel on the aircraft, Quay admitted to her that the parcel held.a bomb. Mrs Pitre added that Quay suggested that, as she would have trouble with the police, she should kill herself and leave a suicide note, saying that she had caused the crash of the aircraft. QUAY SENTENCED TO HANG . JUDGE WEEPS WHEN PRONOUNCING SENTENCE (Rec. 10.35) OTTAWA, March 14. Albert Quay was to-day at Quebec found guilty of lpurdering his wife by blowing up an airliner, and was sentenced to be hanged. The Crown alleged tliat Quay killed his wife and 22 other persons by having a home-made bomb placed aboard the airliner which crashed last September after a mid-air explosion. The prosecution charged that Quay, a 32-year-old jewellery salesman, murdered liis wife, Rita, to collect 10,000 dollars flight insurance, and to marry a 17-year-old waitress, Marie Ange Robitaille, with whom he had carried on a love affair for two years. The jury'returned its verdict after 17 minutes. Quay took the verdict stolidly. He murmured “No,” when asked by Judge Albert Sevigny if he had anything to say befbre sentence was pronounced. Earlier Quay had turned his face to the wall and wept when the judge, in charging the jury, showed them photographs of the dead woman’s broken body in the wreckage of the airliner. Judge Sevigny, too, wept as he concluded his charge to the jury, and was so full of emotion when he pronounced sentence that he could hardly speak. The judge told Quay tha£ hatred of his wife and passion for Robitaille and caused him to perpetrate a perfect crime which had failed. The judge wept when he told the jury: “The law of God gave Mrs Quay the right to live. Nothing escapes the law of God. You have to fulfil the law of your country.” The tidal lasted 13 days. Public interest was at its peak when Robitaille ; testified. Spectators queued up outside the courthouse at 2 a.m. on the first day of her appearance. Robitaille told of many quarrels with Quay, wit.i whom she had taken several trips posing as his wife. A key witness in the case was Mrs Arthur Pitre, also a friend of Quay. Pitre placed the package containing the bomb aboard the plane for Quay, who had told her the parcel contained a statue. Pitre admitted she bought lOlbs of dynamite' for Quay a month before the airliner was wrecked. She said that Quay explained that he wanted to blow up tree stumps. Genereux Rqest, a crippled watchmaker, testified that he made a dynamite detonator at Quay’s request. '