A WIFE MURDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10383, 6 March 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

A WIFE MURDER.

MAN WHO HAS LOST BOTH ARMS

SENTENCED TO DEATH. .At the Devon Assizes lately, Harry Grant, a house painter, was indicted for the murder of his wife, Sarah, at Newton Abbot. Prisoner, who was formerly in the Royal Navy, lost an arm in a railway accident, and now he appeared in court without either arm, for after the crime ho attempted to commit suicide by placing himself in front of a railway train, whereby ho sustained such injuries as to necessitate the amputation of the remaining limb. About 12 years ago he married the deceased, and for the first 10 years of their wedded life there were no children. Two years ago, however, a child was born, and although there appears to have been no ground for the suspicion, the accused was heard to express the opinion that he was not the father. On the night of August 8 last the prisoner and his wife were heard quarrelling, and the next morning the man was seen to leave the house and go in the direction'of tho railway,, As' Mrs. Grant did not appear the police forced an entrance into the house, and found her lying on the floor of the bedroom in an insensible state, suffering from a fractured.skull. She died three days later, without having recovered consciousness. : For the defence it was urged that owing to the prisoner's mental condition he ■ was. not j responsible for „ bis actions, land medical and other evidence was called in support of this view. ; ,. . The jury, 5 alter 'a 1 short .consultation, found' the accused guilty of j murder, but recommended him to mercy. > Sentence ■■ of death was passed in. the usual form, : :. : ■:.-,