STEWARD’S DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER ON LINER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22593, 23 March 1948, Page 5

STEWARD’S DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER ON LINER

(11.15 a.m.) LONDON, March 22. At tiie Winchester Assizes, steward, James Camb, was found guilty of murder of an actress, Gay Gibson, on a voyage of the liner Durban Castle from South Africa to England. The accused was sentenced to death.

The jury agreed on its verdict after 45 minutes-

Girl's Earlier Seizures A defence witness, Evelyn Joan Armour, of London, who was a friend of Miss Gibson's in 1946, said that one night she found Miss Gibson in bed, apparently choking and with her hands clutching her chest. She later told witness she had had an earlier similar seizure.

Camb, when asked if he had anything to say before sentence was passed, said: “My Lord, at the opening of the case I pleaded not guilty. I repeat that now. That is all." Forensic Expert’s Opinion

Professor J. M. Webster, director of the Birmingham forensic laboratory, in evidence said that Camb’s account of the woman’s death agreed with medical experience She probably died from natural causes before she was put into the water. Camb who was cross-examined for two hours maintained that Miss Gibson had a seizure in her cabin during intercourse: that he did no violence to her, and that, believing her dead and being panicky, he pushed her body through the porthole. “I am ashamed. It was beastly conduct," he- said at the end of the crossexamination.

Peter Arthur Dalby, former soldier, who had acted with Miss Gibson, said she was hysterical, excitable and neurotic. She had once fallen from a chair in some kind of hysterical fit, screaming and moaning. Henry Gilbert, actor-producer, said that when he first met Miss Gibson she was a charming, nice and well-bred young lady, but later she was often distraught and highly strung. He said Miss Gibson was perturbed about sex.

A pathologist, F. D. Hocking, said from the medical aspect Camb’s story was a perfectly possible one.