ROYAL CLEMENCY

Evening Post, Issue 60, 11 March 1936, Page 5

ROYAL CLEMENCY

AN ENGLISH CASE

Within two days of; his accession King Edward was recommended by Sir John Simon, Home Secretary, to exercise Royal clemency in favour of Arthur Charles Mortimer, "the man with glaring eyes." . Mortimer was sentenced to death at Winchester Assizes for the murder of Miss Phyllis Oakes by running her down .with a car—the first crime of its kind in England. The Home Secretary has recommended to the King that the capital sentence be commuted to one of penal servitude for life. He took this decision after considering a report on Mortimer's state of mind. ■ Mrs. Mortimer, the prisoner s mother, when told the news, exclaimed: "Thank God! I will sleep happily tonight for the first time for many a week." Mr. Mortimer raised his cap and said with emotion: "God bless the King for this." , Mortimer, who is 27, and was a lancecorporal in the Ist Battalion Welsh Regiment, will be removed to a convict prison, where he will be kept under medical observation. : The prosecution's case at the trial was that Mortimer stole a motor-car at Aldershot on August 7 last year. On the same evening he knocked two women off their bicycles and, assaulted one of them. Next morning, in the same car, he deliberately followed two girla who were cycling along a lane and knocked down Miss Oakes. It was alleged that when Miss Oakes fell to the, ground Mortimer drove off,and disappeared. . Surrey police were concerned 111 a thrilling chase after the stolen car. Near Guildford a police car drew level with it, but Mortimer escaped by driving on to the pavement. Further on, three policemen who stood across the road had to jump for their lives, and in one of Guildford's busiest main streets the car scattered pedestrians in all directions.

Mortimer was stopped by a collision when lie tried to swerve round a traffic block.

Mortimer's appeal against his sentence in the Court of Criminal Appeal was dismissed.