WIFE ROBBED OF LOVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 31

WIFE ROBBED OF LOVE.

PATHOS OF TRIPLE CRIME. "Tour conduct is beneath contempt, for you are more or less directly, by your moral behaviour, responsilbe for this ghastly tragedy. Tou stand condemned in the eyes of all decent men, and I agree with the view that the jury has taken." These remarks were addressed by- the Poplar coroner to Alfred Walter Webster, whose wife, Marie Louisa • Bebecca Webster, was found with a wound in her throat, and whose three children, Alfred (8), Marie Ethel (4), and Rose May (2) were dead With their throats cut. The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder of the three children and attempted suicide on the part of the mother. They desired that the husband should be censured. The coroner said the paramour of the father had disappeared. He had caused 'a subpoena to be served on her, but she could not be found. He would have issued a warrant for her arrest, but he did not think any useful purpose would have been served. He supposed she had disappeared because of the publicity. When the inquest was opened this woman's name, variously given as West and Stiles, it was stated had been mentioned in letters written by the mother and found by the police after the crime. Mrs. Webster attributed her worry and trouble to this woman, and in the letters accused her husband of giving his love to her.