Advertised For Someone To Murder His Wife

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 17

Advertised For Someone To Murder His Wife

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

LONDON, November 12. A man who advertised for someone to murder his wife was today put on probation for one year. The man, Albert Henry Hawkins, aged 54, had pleaded guilty to having proposed to Barry Frederick Breeze, aged 22, that he should murder Mrs Edna May Hawkins. Sentencing Hawkins. Mr Justice Elwes commented: “It is the most extraordinary story I have ever heard.” The judge put Hawkins on

probation for a year on the condition he stayed at a hospital for medical treatment. The prosecutor said Breeze answered a Birmingham newspaper advertisement which said: “An opportunity to earn £250 in a few minutes. A man of average intelligence with a tearaway disposition, willing to take chances, wanted for an outof the ordinary job that can be done only once.” Breeze learned that Hawkins wanted him to get rid of his wife. Hawkins told Breeze he was suffering from arthritis and wanted to go to Australia But his wife had refused, so he wanted to have her shot. Breeze had gone to the police.

Mr Justice Elwes said: “It seems he was living in a world of fantasy." The “Daily Mail” reported that Mrs Hawkins was standing by her husband. He hugged her when he stepped down from the dock at the Birmingham Assizes today, Mr Justice Elwes told him: "For a respected, somewhat humdrum businessman to suddenly get this crazy idea doesn’t make sense. I don’t believe you really meant what you did, or intended to press it to the limit."