Saved From The Scaffold By A Shop Assistant

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 280, 26 November 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

Saved From The Scaffold By A Shop Assistant

tt OHE had dyed her hair. I took J a good look at her, and when the police called 1 wan able to tell them exactly what she was wearing." In thoso words a pretty, 21-year-old shopgirl, fianceo of a constable, described a murder victim who had come into her shop—and thereby saved William Whiting, 88-year-old labourer, of Folkestone, from the scaffold. An outburst of applause greeted Whiting's acquittal on the fourth day of the trial. From the first ho maintained his innocence of the murder of Mrs. Phyllis May Spiers, 22, whose body was found near the sixteenth hole of the Folkestone golf course by a boy birdnesting in a thicket. A green scarf knotted tightly round the woman's neck became one of the chief exhibits in the case against Whiting. Whiting, whose wife was strangled in May, 10.10, by George Arthur Bryant, who subsequently paid the penalty on tho scaffold at Wandsworth, denied at first all knowlcdgo of tho scarf. Later lio admitted it was his, but declared he gave it to Mrs. Spiers six days before her body was found. Tho prosecution, as Mr. Roland Oliver, K.C., Crown counsel, explained, was baaed mainly on circumstantial evidence. It alleged that Whiting murdered Mrs. Spiers on May 23, but Mr. Oliver himself declared that, if the jury believed tho woman was alive after that day, Whiting should bo acquitted. Ten peoplo went into the witness box to say that they saw Mrs. Spiers on May 24 and 25. One saw her wearing I ho green scarf. This witness, who so strongly supported Whiting's itory that ho hud gl" on his scarf to Mrs. Spiers, wan Miss Hilda Miller, of Folkestone, assistant in one of tho town's big^stores, sho told tho Court she was certain Mrs. Spiers was in the store on May 24. She described the clothing Mrs. Spiers was wearing, and her evidence could not be shaken. Whiting's acquittal was another triumph for British justice. After the discovery of Mrs. Spiers' body Folkestone police interviewed many who Itnew tho dead woman. It was obvious that the vital factor in the case would be the day on which Mrs. Spiers was murdered. Knowing that, the prosecution handed over to the defence the statements of Miss Miller and other witnesses who declarer! they had seen the woman alivs after May 23. The trial will thus g0

down in legal history as one in which the prosecution, by its desire for a fair and impartial trial, indirectly secured the acquittal of the accused man.

Describing' the agony of mind through which he passed during the two hours and 23 minutes while the jury considered their verdict, Whiting related that ho was left all the time alone in a room. Cigarettes lay on a table. "I could not sit still, and I could not even smoko properly," he declared. "I shook like * leaf, although I knew I was innocent «nd believed that I must be found not guilty. It seemed like days before the ordeal via over. "I don't think Pm a •lucky' man," he added. "It's not very pleasant to find yourself in the dock charged with murder.

"There is only on* thing I want to do now, and that is to star out in ths open. I have a hatred of walls.

"During the two months and two days I was in Brixton Gaol the terrible cell walls seemed to get nearer and nearer every hour.

"I was never worried about my fate, because I knew I was innocent of Mrs. Spiers' dentil. But I was relieved when the jury filed in and the foreman said 'Not guilty.'

"I hope to get in with my children. My daughter Violet is living with my married sister, and my two boys, Billy and Georgie, are on training ships. Then I shall change my name and get a job where I am not known, and Where I can forget. , "Not many men have had the trouble I have known. First my wife and children were stolen from me. Home and everything were taken. Then, while I was at work, a detective told me my wife had been > trangeld. I had to identify her body.

"I left my job and tramped to London, stopping at casual wards. Eventually I found myself back at Folkestone. It was while 1 was at work there that I was nnested 011 the charge of murdering Mrs. Spiers. . "Now this is the end of William Whiting. He will never be heard of again. van 'sh. I will remain, but with a different name." And so the police must reopen the search for the murderer of Mrs. Spiers. In court Mr. Oliver had told how she was married before she was 17. She parted from lier husband in 1934, and he lost trace of her. He outlined the manner of her death. "She had been violent Iv attacked, perhaps with tUts," he stated. Siie was beaten into unconsciousness and then dragged further into the thicket. A blue coat was thrown over her, and tin- green scarf tied tiirhtlv round her neck." * * ♦ ♦ Woman Chases Man " prouc * y°u." def f clared Mr. David Blackley, chairman of the AVatford magistrates, to a 22-year-old housewife who described how she chased and caught an alleged housebreaker. "You showed real public pirit and plenty of pluck," Mr. Blackley added. Tho incident occurred when Frank Charles Lrnest Coll s yer, 28, of London, was Kent lor trial 011 three charges of housebreaking. Mrs. Pamela Quick, of Kndlett, Herts, stated that she saw Coliyer coming out of Grove Cottage carrying a suitcase. She followed him, and said: "Do you want anything?" Coliyer did not answer, but ran away, added Mrs. Quick. She chased him across the main road and up a lonely lane opposite. There she met some other people. Coliyer stopped, gave her the suitcase, and said:-"You ' avo pot me. I broke in." Mrs. Quick, Coliyer, and the other people all went in a car to Elstrec Police .Station. Coliyer, it was alleged, had made a statement to the effect that he had broken into 200 to 300 houses in the metropolitan area in practically every suburb in tho west and north-west, and in Bucks, Berks, Herts, Kent, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Beds. On leaving the Navy in 1934 he had no trade. He could not obtain work, and had no unemployment assistance. He found himself in such circumstances that he adopted this Method of getting a livelihood.