MURDER BY STUDENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 April 1938, Page 10

MURDER BY STUDENT

RARE FORM OF INSANITY. LONDON, April 14. Twenly-one-year-cld Oxford theological student. John Stanley Phillips had two ambitions —to become 'a foreign missionary and to commit murder. How he achieved one was revealed at. the Old Bailey when he was convicted cf slaying Harold Matthews,! 16. a pantry boy, whose naked body, terribly mutilated, was found on the] roof of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, on February 2. It. was stated that Phillips, sufferin’-; from a rare form of insanity, walked the streets of Oxford seeking his victim. His father, the 1 Rev. Stanley Phillips, vicar of St. Mary’s, Woking, said that his son was so religious that he thought it wrong to bath on Sunday and considered film-going unwholesome.

Police told how he tied up the boy, asphyxiated him and dismembered and mutilated the body. He then attended Sunday morning service and took Holy Communion.

Dr. Henry Yellowtrees, mental specialist, said that when he saw Phillips in Brixton prison weeks later Phillips said he had been spending his time thinking how the crime might be done again in a more satisfactory way. Dr. Yellowtrees said that when Phillips planned to take off the victim’s arms and legs he did not realise that, this would cause the boy’s death. When the hoy died he intended to keep the body, taking it. away with him in a trunk if he left the college. During the interview, said the doctor, Phillips was casual and slightly bored.

In a letter to his parents Phillips wrote: ‘“The drive from Oxford to Brixton was quite enjoyable. I do not like this place much yet. Much love to you all from John.

“U.S. —I hope the dog proves satisfactory.”

I A letter to a friend read: “I didn’t i like Brixton on first acquaintance, but I like it better now. I went to a chapel service here. The service didn’t reach great heights. The singing was not good. The preaching was fair as far as it went. You are allowed "to write one or two letters daily at Government expense. It’s only in prison that one 1 realises where the taxpayers’ money . goes.” A letter to another student read: “It’s difficult to be treated as a potential lunatic. Perhaps I’ll be an actual one before they.’ve finished. Mercifully I’m fond of reading. They’ve a good library here. In any case I’ve a Bible in Greek. I expect it’s not often they have prisoriers to whom Greek is interesting.” Dr. Yellowtrees said that Phillips was . suffering from schizophrenia, meaning a splitting of the mind or a crumbling personality. It was marked by emotional indifference. “Right and wrong do not exist to the schizophrenic. He lives in a land of fantasy. I believe that Phillips was ‘acting’ a murder play.” The jury fOUnd him guilty, but insane, and he was 1 ordered to be detained pending the King’s pleasure.