WOMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 133, 29 February 1936, Page 14

WOMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH

Innocence Protested By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright London, February 27. “I am innocent," said Dorothea Nancy Waddingham, aged 34 years, when she was sentenced to death at the Nottingham Assizes, with a recommendation to mercy, for the murder of Ada Louisa Baguley, aged 50, in a nursing home conducted by Mrs. Waddingham, who is an unregistered nurse.

Ronald Joseph Sullivan, who assisted Mrs. Waddingham to run the home, was similarly charged, but was acquitted during the hearing. The evidence showed that Ada Baguley and her mother, both of whom were crippled, entered the home, and eventually' Ada, by a will dated May 7, 1935, left all she possessed, to an estimated value of £l6OO, equally between Mrs. Waddingham and Sullivan in consideration for their looking after herself and her mother during their lives; The mother died on May 12, at the age of 87, and Ada died on September 12, and the prosecution alleged that Mrs. Waddingham poisoned Ada with.morphia. Mrs. Waddingham, who is the mother of five children, ranging from- four months to ten years, says she will appeal against the charge of murdering Ada Baguley. A charge of murdering Ada’s mother remains on the file. The Crown withdrew a similar charge against Sullivan after his acquittal on the charge of murdering Ada.