A CHILD'S TERRIBLE CONFESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 206, 28 August 1920, Page 19

A CHILD'S TERRIBLE CONFESSION.

KATIE WnrSTAXCE -SENT FOR TRIAL. "I DID MURDER MY AUNTIE." | "Well. I did murder mv auntie at 'Rose Cottage." This dramatic statemeirt. allege,) hy the police to have been made by Primrose Kathleen Alice Whlstanre. was the scns.-i----tion of the police curt hearing of the charge against the girl at 'the beginning of last month. ■Sarah Ann White, a widow, WBO resided at a lonely cottage a: Llantlllo. rMonmouth-j shire, was found dead on June n. her headi having been battered with a stake beetle.; the weapon being found leaning against the window-sill in the bedroom. Her niece, who had been living with Wrs. White at the cottage, t-avc an explanation of her movements, but Scotland Yard detec. the mystery, arrested her. Regarded by the law as a child, Katie, who Is fifteen years of age, was brought up ln tbe children's court at Craig, the public being excluded. Wearing a fawn mackintosh she was a pathetic figure. During the proceedlnss she for a time maintained composure, but became agitated when the details of the crime were given. THE GIRL'S STATEMENT. The alleged confession was read by Mr. Seward Pear.'c .who appeared for the Director of rubric Prosecutions,, after Mr. ('. .1. Bishop .for the defence, had iijtimated that he woul'l require every statement attributed to his client to i,e proved to be entirely voluntary. In a statement to Detective-Sergeant Soden, of Scotland Yard, the girl said: — On Thursday. June 10. my aunt started grumbling at mc for being out late a •month ago, ami told mc I could pack up in the morning. We had supper together, and went to bed about 9.30. Auntie went to sleep and I also went to sleep. I woke up some time in the night an. went downstairs into the back kitchen and got the beetle. Auntie bad told mc to bring it with mc on th e Thursday evening from 'the stables. I went upstairs and hit auml e with It and she fell out of bed. I hit her again on the floor. I then got my box and bicycle and went to my mother's. The story I toid my mother was untrue. I worried about my auntie turning mc out, because I wouM lose a good home. DETECTIVE"!* EVIDENCE. Detective-Sergeant So.len gave a dramatic account of the girl's arrest and the subsequent conversation at the police station. When taken into custody Katie said: "I never did it. What makes you think I did?" Cuief inspector Helden, who made the arrest, replied: "Various reasons." On her way to the station she fainted, but after \ her recovery, asked, "What can they do to mc for this?" She later made the statement quoted by ' counsel. "I cautioned her." said the witness, "and broke in and told her that everything she might say might he used in evidence against her. She said 'Yes. I quite understand Well, I did murder my auntie.' "When she had signed the statement she , said 'I feel better now. I have not had c much sleep lately. I wa's going to my i mother about it when It was all over." "She afterwards complained of helnir I tired, and after she had a cup of warm milk I suggested she should He down on the sofa. She did so. and soon she was in an apparently sound and untroubled sleep while I watched over her." r Chief Inspector Helden. who has had charge of the inquiries, said he was satls- " fled that the child's statement solved the ' problem entirely. There was nobody else ' implicated. The accused was committed for trial at ' Monmouthshire Assizes. At the adjourned inquest a verdict t.l 1 "Wilful murder" against the girl was t returned.