THE SUPREME PENALTY

Evening Star, Issue 21218, 27 September 1932, Page 7

THE SUPREME PENALTY

MAN HANGED FOR SEX CRIME Press As*ociation—By Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, September 26. David Bennett was hanged to-day. He spoke on the gallows for nine minutes, the longest of any condemned man 'in the annals of Victorian gaols. He traversed his criminal record, declared that false evidence had been given against him in sex cases, complained of unfair trials, and the withholding of important evidence, and made allegations of brutality against the police. Death was instantaneous. [David Bennett, aged fifty-nine, was sentenced to death for a capital offence against a four-year-old girl at Carlton. The last execution for a similar crime took place forty-one years ago. Bennett, however, was previously convicted in Western Australia of a sex offence, for which he received a whipping and a life sentence, but he obtained hi* release after a portion of his sentence was served. He was later convicted of robbery under arms in company with Angus Murray, and received fifteen years’ imprisonment. Murray was executed in 1924 for shooting and killing a bank manager. That was the last execution in Melbourne, and it is a coincidence that Bennett has now shared that fate.]