SISTER'S ORDEAL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 8, 10 January 1908, Page 2

SISTER'S ORDEAL.

A poignant human drama was played on Tuesday, November 12th, at the Gravesend Coroner's Court, when a sister gave evidence against her brother, who is accused of murdering another brother.

The occasion was the inquest on; Thomas Windsor Ansted, who was found in bed on the Sunday night with his head battered in. His brother, James Ansted, is charged with the murder.

Miss Catherine Ansted said that the dead man, his brother, she and her sister lived with their father and mother at Claremont. Her father is a retired Bank of England official. When Miss Ansted returned.. from church on the Sunday evening her mother told her that James had gone, to bed. She retired about 10 p.m.,' and a, few minuter later she heard her brother Thomas I'come in and go upstairs to the room which the brothers occupied jointly

About twenty minutes later she heard a noise, and on going out of her room she hoard James go to his father's bedroom and say, " I hav4 killed my dear brother." "I went into my brother's room :' said Miss Anst«d, "and I saw my brother Thomas lying on the bed bleeding from the head. j " Then I went to my father's roon»| and I saw James there alone wifc^ mother. She was trying to get. him to bed. Het-was very excited, and mpther^told hfrn tb koep quiet, saj ■ ing, "Tom is asleep.'* ! ' Miss Ansted said that she then stood at the door qi her brothers' bedroom and prevented her father, mother and sister from entering. She asked tlnrn not to £nter, and she and her sister whistled from the window for a policeman. She also said that her brother James had been very depressed for some time, and that for a fortnight he had only spoken once. The jury returned a verdict of "Wilful murder " against James Ansted.