SENSATIONAL TRIAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9635, 6 October 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

SENSATIONAL TRIAL.

AN ENGLISHMAN CHARGED WITH

KILLING HIS FRENCH WIFE. The trial began recently at the Saintes assizes of the young Englishman named Whittingham, who is charged with the murder of his wife at Royan. The prisoner is, it is stated, the son of a retired General, who is reported to be of considerable means. The father was annoyed at the marriage of his son with a young woman his inferior in birth and education, and would have nothing further to do with him. The husband tried hard to earn a living for himself and his wife, but failed to do so, and becoming weary of a life of poverty after years of luxury, quarrelled time after time with his wife as the cause of his misfortune. Affairs becoming critical he applied to his father for relief, bub received no answer ; and after a fruitless journey to London in the hope of effecting a reconciliation he endeavoured to persuade his wife to commit suicide, promising to die with her. This she refused to do, and he then, it is alleged, shot her on the 9pot. The defence is that the gun went off accidentally while he was cleaning it, and also that he is out of his mind. The prisoner is a fair-haired man of 21, but looking younger. His answers to the judge were given in imperfecb French. Referring to the circumstances under which the prisoner first met the girl who afterwards became his wife, the judge said :— " Your family came to Royan for change and rest, and during its stay enjoyed public esteem. You were brought up as a spoilt child, and became brutal. Contrary to the conventional usages of your own country you first spoke to Suzanne Audon without any introduction." Continuing his account of the marriage, the judge said :—" She wished to leave you and go to a convent. I'm afraid that after having gained your object you grew tired of her." To this the accused answered, "No ! On the contrary, I did everything I could do bo reconcile my father to the match." "Then why," asked the judge, " did you never meet her except at night?" "My father forbade me to see her in the daytime. He would have turned me out of doors if I had disobeyed." " And your allowance would have been stopped?" The prisoner continued to lay stress upon his endeavours to obtain the consent of his family to the marriage, but said that his father's only reply was to turn him out of the house, so that he was obliged to sleep in the stables. The hearing of evidence having been concluded, a description was given of the scene of the alleged crime, with the help of the medical men engaged in the case, but nothing was elicited tending to prove the guilt of the accused. A painful scene occurred during the examination of the prisoner's sister, who, overcome by grief, threw herself into her brother's arms. Prisoner was sentenced to 20 years' penal servitude. He displayed no emotion on hearing the sentence, and on being conveyed to prison he preserved the same calm attitude.