GIRL STRANGLED

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2346, 16 January 1926, Page 2

GIRL STRANGLED

NEW YEAR Ml R'iKR AT CAMDEN TOWN. LONDON, January 4. Polly Walker, a pretty 17-year-old Camdeit'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 gill took part in the New Year festivities, accompanied by a former soidier, Eugene de Vere, aged 2D, with she had been keeping company. He was seen leaving the house at 8 a.m„ after Miss Walker’s mother, believing her daughter was asleep, had gone to work. She returned at lunchtime and the found the body, clad only in a night-dress, on the floor. De Vere was arrested the following day. At th e Inquest an angry man rushed up and. shouting, “You’ve murdered my sister! Take that!” punched him In the chin, felling him to th e ground. The police had difficulty in restraining Walker and carefully shielded de Vere, who dropped his faco on his arms and sobbed violently throughout the inquest. Mrs. Walker,. th 0 girl’s mother, gave evidence that her daughter had twice suffered from St. Vitus’ dance, and had been depressed because sh 0 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 TVlial, also stayed at the house at Christinas. De Vere kept following Polly about th? house, with the result that they had ft quarrel on New Year’s Eve outside St. Martin’s Church, 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 fill January S. ’• f ■