CONFESSION OF MURDER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 930, 31 January 1924, Page 5

CONFESSION OF MURDER.

THE TRAGEDY AT MAKARAKA. ACCUSED MAN SURRENDERS. “COULD NOT POSSIBLY GET AWAY.” (Per Press Association.) GISBORNE, Jan. 31. 'The police last night left for Matawai, 47 miles from Gisborne, and Inspector Hutton and Detective McLeod arrested a man named Robert Herbert Scott, on a farm between Matawai and Motu. In a statement to the police, the accused admits the outrage and murder of the girl Gwen Murray. Later. The arrested man, Robert Herbert Scott, is the man for whom the police have been searching since Tuesday. Ho called early on Sunday morning at a Makaraka resident’s house and gruffly demanded food, and his movements since have been erratic. He stated on Sunday that he had come from the Hicks Bay freezing works and was making for the Waipaoa works, but he appears to have hung about the vicinity of the cemetery till the night of the crime and subsequently took to the hills. The police arrested yesterday a Maori of a similar description on a charge of vagrancy 7, but satisfied themselves that he was not the man wanted. Scott told the police that he had decided to surrender because he knew lie was being hunted and could not Eossibly get away and he felt exausted. He is of slim build, hut wiry, and is 5 feet 7 inches in height. He gave his age as 33 years. Inspector Hutton and Detective McLeod reached town with their quarry at 1.30 a.m., having obtained a full confession. ADDITIONAL DETAILS. GISBORNE, Jan. 31. Inspector Hutton states that when Scott was apprehended at Matawai he was in a bad way, being completely exhausted from constant travelling, and little food, and apparently was under great mental strain. He said he was beside himself, being tired out, and had been hunted from pillar to post, and “threw in the towel.” He intimated that he wished to give himself up to the police and made an admission both in respect to the outrage and the murder. A statement to this effect was taken in writing and is in the possession of the inspector. The accused is understood to be a Canterbury man. His parents are both dead. He had been at Hicks Bay working, but things became slack there and he endeavoured to get work on the Port Eliott, but was unsuccessful. He came down the coast looking for work and reached Gisborne on Sunday. He had little or no money. A singular coincidence in connection with the police investigation was that two men were roving the country 7 , both of unkempt appearance and erratic movements, and both wearing white shoes, who crossed and re-crossed each other’s tracks. The police arrested one of them on a charge of "vagrancy, but soon satisfied themselves that he was not the man wanted. ACCUSED BEFORE THE COURT. (Per Press Association.) GISBORNE, Jan. 31. Robert Herbert Scott was charged at the Magistrate’s Court this morning that .he did murder Gwendoline Kathleen Murray. Inspector Hutton applied for a remand till February 7 8 in order that further inquiries could be made. Accused was acordingly remanded.