WIDOW ACQUITTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19744, 17 September 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

WIDOW ACQUITTED.

DEATH OF HUSBAND. SHOT IN SELF DEFENCE. DAUGHTERS AWFUL ORDEAL, DRAMATIC STORY IN COURT.

After ten minutes' retirement the jury at Ayr High Court recently acquitted Mrs. Eileen Ludgate, a slim, attractive woman, accused of causing the death of her husband, Major William Ludgate, D.5.0., a retired officer of the Indian Army Veterinary Service. Major Ludgate was shot, at his home, at Ayr, on May 6, and died on the following day. Thousands of people sought admission to the court for the hearing, but fewer than 200 were accommodated.

A dramatic story was related by a daughter of accused, Rosamund Ludgate, aged 19, a typist. She said she was born 111 India during the time that her father was on service there. Ho also served in Ireland, in France during the war, at Aldershot and again in India. While in the East he drank heavily, and frequently abused her mother. On his discharge from the Army the family removed to Ayr, and there her father gave way so heavily to drink that her mother left him on several occasions, returning finally on his promise to reform. Both her father and mother kept loaded revolvers. In May last her father was again drinking to excess. What Led to the Tragedy. Relating the incident that led up to the tragedy witness broke down and wept bitterly. Her father, she said, staggered home early that day, and in the evening he was threatening. So alarmed did her mother become that she sent a son to his grandmother to bring home the loaded magazine of her pistol, which witness hid in her suitcase in a bedroom. In the evening, said witness, her father followed her to a sitting room, and made an improper suggestion. She wrenched herself clear, and rushed into the kitchen. Her father followed, and struck her across the face. She defended herself with a walking-stick, and her mother tried to drive off her father with a heavy brush. He then rftade for his bedroom, where he kept his revolver, and as he said he would kill them, witness and her mother rushed upstairs to a box-room. The father followed, and entered the bedroom of a younger daughter, who, awakening out of her sleep, screamed. Her mother, alarmed for their safety, fired her revolver at the wall. It clicked and she exclaimed, "My God! It won't work." Later her mother fired another shot and her father fell. Witness saw lie could not move, and she dashed outside. "I Will Kill You Now." Cross-examined by Mr. Craigie Aitchison, who conducted the defence, witness said her father went on like a madman, and standing in front of a mirror made terrible grimaces. He also used coarse and obscene language. When her father came upstairs he shouted, " My God, I will kill you now!" A neighbour gave evidence that just after the shooting Mrs. Ludgate was on the verge of collapse, crying, " My God, I have shot my husband! I had to do it. My daughter was in danger." Medical evidence showed that deceased had one gunshot wound, and that he died tinder chloroform while undergoing an operation. Mrs. Ludgate, in her evidence, corroborated her daughter's account of the tragedy Her husband, she said, was undoubtedly insane, and a deed of separation had been prepared, but she relied on his promise to reform. She overheard the suggestion her husband made to their daughter, and later he declared, "I will kill you in five minutes." In view of all the circumstances she did not regard her conduct as reckless.

Counsel for the Crown, addressing the jury, said the question was whether the Erisoner was legally justified in firing at er husband. He asked for a verdict of culpable homicide. A Verdict o! "Not Guilty." Mr. Aitchison said the evidence overwhelmingly established a situation of emer ergency entitling prisoner to act as she did. He did not appeal on any unwritten law, but on the law of Scotland, which laid it down that a person reasonably apprehensive of her life was entitled to act in her defence or use violence to protect herself or her children.

The jury after ten minute's deliberation, returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty. Mrs. Ludgate, on being discharged, was surrounded by her relatives and overwhelmed with congratulations.