“I DONE HER IN”

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 22

“I DONE HER IN”

RA.F- Man on Murder Charge

Frederick Herbert Charles. Field, aged thirty-two, a R.A.F. aircraftman, stationed at Hendon, was remanded at the, South Western I’plice Court recently, accused of the murder of Mrs. Beatrice Vilna Sutton, aged -fortyeight, by strangling her on April 4 at her fiat in Elmhurst Mansions. Edgeley Road, Clapham. S.W. Mr. Vincent Evans, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said Mrs. Sutton was living apart from her husband in the ground floor flat at Elmhurst Mansions.

in the position where somebody would do it.

“I went to her place and done her hi, and, as-you might say, put myself on the spot.” Mr. Evans said Field made, a long statement in which he said be- Went to Wimbledon and bought a bottle of disinfectant. He went to Wimbledon Common and tried to pluck up courage to drink the disinfectant, -but he could not do so, and threw the bottle away. The alleged statement described how Field passed the days until April 5. The statement said that on April 4. after leaving a coffee stall at 10.56 pan., he walked to Edgeley Road and there saw a big woman. “I contemplated talking to her, but I did not do sc because she walked right by me and because I wanted to walk about a bit first. "I went down there solelv to murder.

He explained how Mrs. Gladys O’Connor, a friend, found Mrs. Sutton lying on her back on a bed. partly undressed with two pillows on her face. Dr, Temple Gray performed a postmortem examination, said Mr. Evans, and he would say that the woman was in a bad state of health, aud that a slight pressure on the windpipe would have been sufficient to cause'death. Field absented himself without leave on Marell 24. He was arrested as a deserter at West Gardens, Tooting, on April 5. When arrested be was found to have a halfpenny and two boxes of matches. "The two boxes of matches,” said Mr. Evans, "are important, in the light of Field’s subsequent statement.’’ Field was handed over to an R.A.F. escort and taken in a tender to, Hendon.

He said I hat ifter walking up and down he saw' the woman at the gate of the second or third house in Elmhurst Mansions, holding a Pekingese dog in her arms. "I asked her to put me »-• for the night,” the statement went on. ‘I wanted to find out if she had anyone else in the flat. She told me I could come in for a time, and eventually I went in.”

At Hendon he said to a corporal: “I haven’t seen a paper since Saturday night. Yet I know there has been some trouble at Edgeley Road. Have you reported it, because I know something about it?” . At Hendon Police Station, it was stated, Field said "Yes, I did it. I know all about it. I was' fed up with being short of money, so I thought I would get what dough I could and do myself in, but when it came to the time I hadn't the guts, so I thought I would stick myself

The statement, it was added, described in detail the contents of the front room and -old bow the woman had tried to light a match for a clgarett. but had difficulty because the side of the box was worn.

Field thought be put the’match box into his pocket and took it away with him.

That long statement, sa Mr. Evans, had been corroborated in a number of details.

Field was then remanded, the magistrate sayingln would grant the application for legal aid.