MURDER OF COLONEL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 143, 20 June 1927, Page 7

MURDER OF COLONEL.

Sentence of Death Pronounced Cn Duffield. ACCUSED CALM AND COMPOSED GIBRALTAR, June 19. A verdict of guilty was returned against Lieutenant Duffield at the conclusion of his trial on a charge of murdering Colonel Fitzgerald by shooting. The jury rejected the plea of insanity, but recommended accused to mercy. Duffeld was sentenced to be hanged. He was calm throughout. Indeed he was the most composed man in Court, and bowed and smiled to the women as thev sobbed. The last execution in Gibraltar took place in 1896. Lieutenant A. C. Duffield, 2nd Battalion! the East Surrey Regiment, shot the com-j manding officer, Colonel J. Fitzgerald. during an interview on April 8. When »n orderly rushed in on hearing shots, the colonel said: "He shot me. arrest him." The colonel died soon afterward*. Duffield, who admitted his guilt, was arrested and placed in a mental ward. He was said to be suffering from delusions. At the hearing of the charge against accused evidence was given that Duffield was in charge of the accounts of the Battalion Rifle Club. Orders had been issued for an audit of the accounts two days before the shooting, and Colonel Fitzgerald had also asked for an interview on April S with all officers in charge of accounts. Both orders would affect Duffield. Major Schomberg, President of the Audit Board. said that owing to the non-production of the Rifle Club accounts on April 7, lie sent for Mr. Duffield, not knowing he was under arrest owing to the unsatisfactory state of his accounts. In a statement aftei the shooting Duffield said: "I am perfectly sane and know what I have done. It is better that one man should die than that the whole regiment should be ruined. I have made a mess of things. I missed him for the first shot, and hit him with the second, which I meant for myself."