ON CONFESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 234, 3 October 1934, Page 7

ON CONFESSION.

MURDERER SENTENCED.

LONDON, September 27,

Though the body has not been found and the only evidence against him was his own statement, Thomas Davidson, 34, poultry breeder, was convicted at the Old Bailey of the murder of his son, aged eight. The boy disappeared on December 21.

Davidson wrote to the police on July 21: "I think it best to make a clean sweep of the matter. I killed Jackie." It was alleged that he signed a statement to the effect that he had been worried by his wife's refusal to return home, that he took the boy from the house where she was associating with another man and that lie jumped into the canal with the boy.

"I reached the bank and left Jackie on tho edge of a burning refuse dump. When I returned, I found that the body had been covered with refuse."

At the trial, Davidson pleaded not guilty and gave evidence that on the way back home, he left the boy momentarily. When he returned he found him in the water. He was unable to revive the boy and placed him near the dump, but the warmth, of it was of no avail. Davidson added that he was afraid when he saw a car approaching and covered the body with clean refuse. Davidson was sentenced to death. The jury recommended him to mercy. Lawyers are keenly discussing the case, which is unique for the Old Bailey. An appeal is probable, and judges have hitherto been disinclined to uphold verdicts of guilty where the prosecution relied on the accused's confession.