JURY DISAGREES

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 April 1931, Page 4

JURY DISAGREES

BOY ACCUSED OF MURDER After an hour’s absence, an Old Bailey jury disagreed as to the verdict in the trial of a boy, aged 14 years and 8 mbnths, charged with z murder. The' accused was Thomas ' Michael Treacy of Southend, and it was alleged that he stabbed Margaret Golding (14) in a partly-built house at Palmer’s Green. Mr. Justice Avory, saying that he regretted the abortive result, ordered the case to stand over for re-trial at the next sessions. Mr. C. B. McClure, prosecuting, said that on the night of January 5 accused went to Southend police station and /said to an officer, “I have murdered a girl.” Treacy and the girl had known each other since October, and letters had passed between them which showed that they were very fond of each other. There was an incident in December when Treacy and the girl stayed out all night. Subsequently the girl was sent by her grandmother at Southend to live with an aunt at Pal-

mer’s Green. On January 5 the boy left home. In the afternoon he arrived at the house in Palmer’s Green, and said that he had come to say “go'od-bye” to “Margaret.” They were seen in the road about 3.30 p.m. That day Treacy

had bought a knife in Southend. At 10.30 that night Treacy returned to Southend. He said to his stepfather, “Peggy is dead; I have killed her.” When told that he would be charged, Tracey said to Inspector Payne: “I got frightened and told no one about it until I got home. We went to the pictures, and afterwards to an empty house. I was showing her the knife when she caught hold of my arm and pulled it into her chest. I was frightened and left her.” Dr. Robert Dickson, of S'outhgate, said that he thought the girl’s wound would have caused instant death. It was consistent with a stab with a knife, and required too much force to have been self-inflicted.

.On Mr. Raphael’s suggestion an usher went into the witness box, and Dr. Dickson held his arm upraised as if holding a knife. The usher, to represent the girl, was then asked to pull the arm down sharply. He was able to do this, in spite of the doctor’s resistance. Treacy, in the witness box, said, with tears running down his cheeks, that he liked the girl very much, and her feelings for him were the same. The girl had threatened to commit suicide on November 1:> by turning on the gas in her bedroom. He advised her not to do it. lie bought a. sheath knife because he thought he would like it.

“1 opened my overcoat,” said Treacy “to see if my railway ticket was there, when Peggy saw the knife, and asked me to show it to her. She said she could not see it properly, and 1 then held it in front of me to catch the light from a car coming along outside. She asked me what was the matter with the headlights of the car, and as I turned she caught hold of my hand and wrist' with both her hands and pulled the knife down. It went into her body, and she fell into my arms. I was frightened and left.” Dr. Grierson, senior medical officer at Brixton Prison, said that he thought it possible for the wound to have been so If-inflict ml.