RIDDLE OF CORPSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 22, 26 January 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

RIDDLE OF CORPSE.

SON ON MURDER CHARGE. VIOLENCE ALLEGED. DISCOVERED l>f A VILLAGE. Suggestions that a youth stayed alone for ten days or a fortnight in a cottage in the county of Gloucester, England, while the dead and decomposing body of his father lay on the stairs, were made at the first full magisterial investigation of a charge of .murder.

The son is alleged to Tiave taken his parent's life by methods of extreme violence, and explained the old man's disappearance from his customary haunts by saying in the first place he was ill, and then that he had been removed to prison. Eventually the police discovered the truth, but meanwhile the youth had vanished from the city, and following a broadcast S.O.S. was discovered in a village many miles distant. He went to the police station to beg for food, and was recognised. Police Break Into Cottage. 111 a cottage close to an ancient church in St. Mary's Square, Gloucester, lived for some years George Wells, aged CO, and Ronald George Wells, his 19-year-old son. They not only shared the home, but a business as well—the sale of cheese from a pony and trap at the country markets round about.

Suddenly George Wells, sen., disappeared, and suspicion led the police to break into his cottage home. .As tlx: result of their discovery Ronald George Wells now found himself in the Police Court dock charged with the murder of his father. Smartly dressed in a dark pinstriped suit, he quietly pleaded not guilty.

On November 2, related Mr. 10. C. Robey, for the Public Prosecutor, certain information was given to the police, and officers were sent to the cottage in St. Mary's Square. The front door was locked, and they entered an open window. In front of the fireplace in the living room was a couch made up as a bed and covered with Army blankets. There were blood stains on most of the fixtures and the door.

On the stairs which led from the livingroom to bedrooms lay the body of the elder Welle, hidden by an overcoat, and with a woollen vest pulled partly over his head. Bloodstained clothing in the kitchen appeared to have been slashed with a knife in a manner which suggested it had been stripped from the victim after death. Coal Hammer Theory. On Wells' head were seven or eight contused wounds, one of which penetrated to the brain. The skull was extensively fractured, and it was the contention of the prosecution that all the injuries were inflicted with a coal hammer found in the house.

In the opinion of a doctor Wells, sen., had then been dead for a period of ten Jays to two weeks, "so that," added Mr. Robey, "the son had remained in the house while his father's body was decomposing 011 the stairs."

To neighbours who inquired about his "ather, Ronald George Wells replied either .hat he was in bed ill with bronchitis or n prison.

On November 1 prisoner left home in the afternoon on a bicycle, and stayed the next night in a Newport lodging house. There he made some inquiry as to whether a wireless set was installed, and if it was put on at night for the news.

"That is a lie, sir," interrupted Wells. Mr. Robey went on to say that the prisoner had no money, and left his bicycle and watch with the lodging house keeper. I The Makeshift Bed. Every time Wells went upstairs in the cottage he must have passed his father's body, and that was the probable explanation 011 the improvised bed in the living loom.

On November 3 Wells called at the police station in the village of Woolaston and asked for food. He was recognised and handed over to the Gloucester police. When charged he replied, "I did not murder my father." Frederick William Williams, a nextdoor neighbour of the Wellses, gave evidence that some time in October he heard the older man tell the son that he would have to arrive home at an earlier Jiour or get lodgings. Later, Williams asked prisoner where his father was, and Wells answered, "To tell you the truth he is lying low for a couple of days 011 account of a compensation job."

Cross-examined by Mr. Martin, defending, Williams stated that he had known Wells, sen., for 20 years, and remembered when his wife left him 13 years ago. Before an accident in his pony and trap Wells- was a big and powerful man, and taller than his son. lie knew deceased was going to receive some compensation because the old man had told him so. His Sister's Smile. Gilbert Aitcheson, another resident of St. Mary's Square, alleged that when he remarked to Ronald Wells: "Now, Sam" (as prisoner was known), "I want the truth. Where is your father?" accused replied that he was in Cheltenham gaol for a month, because he was unable to pay a fine for a minor offence. Aitcheson also was cross-examined and Wells joined in the general laughter which followed Mr. Martin's question: "How long do you usually take to have your dinner?"

"It is all according what we have got," replied Aitcheson.

At one stage of later evidence prisoner collapsed in the dock and had to be assisted from Court. When he returned his sister, Frances May Wells, who has lived away from her father's house for ten years, was called as a witness. Dressed in deep mourning, she smiled at Wells as she went into the box and he smiled back at her.

William Lloyd, of Llanarth Street, Newport, related that Wells stayed at his lodging house on November 2 and asked whether he had a wireless set. Prisoner was unable to pay for his board and lodging. and Lloyd told him he had a good mind to have him locked up. "Take my bicycle and this watch, which is my father's, as a security," suggested Wells, and witness agreed. Warrants for the Dead. Detective-Sergeant Ward, of Gloucester, described the search of the house in St. Mary's Square, where the police found a bundle of blood-stained clothing under a. table and a case of butcher's knives near the body. There was nothing on the knives, however, to indicate that they had been used recently. The living room was in on exceptionally dirty condition, except for the lloor and table. I

Another .police witness mentioned in cross-examination that there were two warrants out against the elder Wells in respect of fines, and Mr. Martin said he raised that matter because motive might be an important point. Evidence which tended to show that Wells had no money would also tend to exclude any suggestion of motive based upon robbery or theft.

Wells was committed for trial at the February Assizes, and granted a certificate for the services of two counsel.