TAXI – CAB MURDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18380, 21 April 1923, Page 14

TAXI - CAB MURDER.

DEATH SENTENCE PASSED. 'ACCUSED REFUSES LAWYER. —At* the ' Central . Criminal Court in London recently, Bernard Pomroy, aged 25 years,' shop assistant, was charged with the murder "of Alice Cheshire on February 6.>, ■. ■-'•:/, ' When the case was called on, Mr. Justice Horridge asked the prisoner whether he was still determined not to have the assistance of counsel, which ' the Judge offered him on the previous day, and the prisoner 1 replied, "Quite." ' Mr. Percival Clarke, who, with Mr. Eustace Fulton, appeared for the prosecution, said the prisoner and Alice Cheshire, who was about 20. had been walking out together for four years. Alice Cheshire had taken a I temporary situation as housemaid at Hampstead. The dead girl had a sister , called Mabel, and ori- February ' 4 the prisoner called at Mrs. Cheshire's house at Hemel Hempstead, and said Mabel was in trouble by him. adding' that he could do nothing until he had seen Alice. Next day the prisoner travelled to London, and in the evening be and Alice Cheshire went to the Hippodrome. After the performance they got into a taxicab and drove to Watford and back to Hampstead. Near Swiss Cottage the cabman . heard a, slight scream in the cab, and it might be that that was the last scream the girl uttered. They then drove to Leicester j Square, and at the prisoner's request, to Vine Street Police Station. The woman was then found in the . cab with a wound in her throat. 'At the close of the case for the Crown, the prisoner said he had no witnesses to call and no statement to make. •The jury found the prisoner guilt}'. When asked whether he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed on him, the prisoner replied:—• "If I did say anything it would alter my case altogether, therefore I will not." Mr. Justice Horridge then passed sentence of death on the prisoner, who smiled and stepped briskly from the dock to the cells beneath.