MAN'S "BAD LIFE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 84, 11 April 1939, Page 7

MAN'S "BAD LIFE."

SENTENCED TO DEATH.

YOUNG WOMAN MURDERED.

"I AM NOT GUILTY."

(By Air Mall.)

LONDON, March 18.

"Harry Armstrong. I am afraid you have brought to an end a bad life" of which the jury knew nothing."

Behind those words uttered at the Old Bailey by Mr, Justice Humphrevs, ■ as he passed sentence of death on Arm- : strong. 38-year-old Seaford manservant, who strangled 17-year-old Peggy Pente- ! cost, of Brighton, lies the story of a man whose fingerprints showed him to be an oft-times convicted crook. Now that the jury has found him : guilty of murdering the girl in an hotel at Waterloo, S.E., Armstrong's record can be revealed. In 1925 at Surrey Assizes, he was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for wounding Miss Mabel Brown, an employee at a Sunningdale golf course. The charge had been reduced from attempted murder. Armstrong stabbed Miss Brown with a knife while they were in a hut on the golf course. Her neck was so badly injured that she was unable to give evidence until a month after the attack. "I heard the clock strike eight, nine and ten," said Miss Brown. 'When I came round I found a dagger sticking in my throat and I pulled ft out." She is -now in an institution. On his release from prison Armstrong started a life of crime which earned him many convictions, including three years' penal servitude for housebreaking, and three months for being drunk and attempting to commit suicide. Then there were convictions for being in possession of firearms. Addressed the Jury. That was the man of whom Mr. Justice Humphreys last night said: 'The ! evidence against you, in my opinion, most amply justifies the verdict the jury have arrived at."

When he had been found guilty, Armstrong whipped round the dock, and faced the jury. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury," said the dark-haired Armstrong with '. the pointed nose that twitched to > punctuate every word, "I appreciate everything you have done and no doubt you have had a very difficult task. "But let me tell you this. In spite of your verdict, I am not guilty of the murder of Miss Pentecost." The death sentence gravely administered, Armstrong turned with a supercilious smile on his ashen-white face and walked between two warders to the cells. There was drama in this trial, with J an eleventh-hour sensation in the recal! of Dr. Cedric Keith Simpson, the • pathologist. His statement that "with tolerable confidence" he could say that Miss Pentecost died somewhere between 9 ' , p.m. and 11.30 p.m. shattered Arm- • strong's alibi. Armstrong's story was that he left • the jrirl in bed shortly after 0.30 p.m. and went out to drink and spend the i night with another woman at Paddinr- ! ton. W. * 1 There was evidence to show that after 10 p.m. he went to a coffee stall and ■ drank floffee with several women to r whom he gave whisky. • There was the evidence of the woman • with whom he slept that night to con- ' firm his story. But in the light of all the evidence i the jury decided that Armstrong murdered Miss Pentecost. r Another factor that weighed heavily e against the defence theory that Miss • Pentecost was killed by a stranger, a J left-handed man, was the work of the I brilliant expert at Scotland Yard, Chief ? Inspector Cherrill. He found that the left-hand' fingerprint on the sherry bottle which was | found in the bedroom the couple had i occupied was made before Armstrong cjtouched the bottle and left his own • I prints."