DOUBLE TRAGEDY IN LEICESTERSHIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 50, 27 February 1909, Page 15

DOUBLE TRAGEDY IN LEICESTERSHIRE.

,WIFE'S TEBKIBLB .DEATH AND HUSBANDS StnCIDB. A terrible double tragedy on Sunday, January 10th, came to light at the Tillage of Whitwick, iv Leicesterehlre. It appears; that about three weeks ago a man named Illffe Knight, a. colliery banksman, living iv School Lane, Whitwick, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Knight, -were drinking together. After proceeding home the two quarrelled, and Knight is alleged to bare threatened to run hl» wife through, the back with, a red hot poker. Suiting the action to the word, he drew the weapon from the fire, where It had been for some time. Mrs Knig-ht thereupon attempted to make her escape from the room, but as s.he did 60, the man ie alleged to hare stabbed her with the poker In the back between the shoulder blades. The woman was obliged to take to her bed, and nothing was heard of the affair in the district until Sunday, no doctor having been called in. Between two and five o'clock on Sunday morning, Knight, wlio, with, his eldest (laughter, had been sitting up with hie wife, went downstairs for an interval, and on returning made the discovery that his wife • lay dead in bed. Proceeding downStairs again, he spoke to his eldest daughter, and telling her that her mother was asleep, said she must not go upetairs at present and disturb her. He added that he would go for a walk in the garden, as he was getting sleepy. With those words, he left the house, never to return. Suspicion being aroused, a search was made later, with the result that between halfpast ten and eleven o'clock the same morning, Knight's lifeless body was found hanging by the neck from ft tree in a field some distance away from the house. The discovery of his wife's death had meanwhile keen made. Knight was 41 years of age, and his wife 3S. They leave six children.