GIRL STRANGLED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 22 January 1926, Page 2

GIRL STRANGLED.

A NEW YEAR MURDER. MOTHER’S TRAGIC DISCOVERY. LONDON, Jan. 1. Polly Walker, a pretty 17-ye’ar-old Camden Town girl, blue-eyed and with bobbed hair, who was a chemist’s cashier, was found strangled, with a stocking tied round her neck and severe wounds on her head, having apparently been battered with a poker, which was left upon her bed. The girl took part in the New Year festivities, Accompanied l>y a former soldier, Eugene do Vere. aged 2b, with whom she had been keeping company. Ho was seen leaving the house at 8 a.m.. after Miss Walker’s mother, believing her daughter to he asleep, had gone to work. She returned at lunchtime and found the body, clad only in a night-dress, on the floor. De Vere was arrested the following day. At the inquest an angry man rushed up and, shouting, “You’ve murdered mv sister! Take that!” punched him in the chin, felling him to the ground. The police, had difficulty in restraining Walker and carefully shielded De Vere, who dropped his face on his arms and sobbed violently throughout the inquest. Mrs. Walker, the girl’s mother, gave evidence that her daughter had twice suffered from St. Vitus dance, and had been depressed because she had been worried and tormented by de Vere, who called at the house daily, frequently staying for meals. He had been very annoyed when another youth, Leonard "Mial, also stayed at the house at Christmas. De Vere kept following Polly about the house, with the result that they had a quarrel on New Year’s Eve outside. St. Martin’s Church, in Trafalgar Square. De Vere refused to share Polly’s company and conversation with anyone, and parted from her in an awful rage. “He turned nasty when I forbade him to call,” said witness. The inquest was adjourned till January 8.