TESTING AN ALIBI

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23221, 15 December 1938, Page 12

TESTING AN ALIBI

FRENCH CYCLING CHAMPION MAY SAVE MAN'S LIFE [from a special correspondent] LONDON, Nov. 25 A French cycling champion raced 2e miles this week, from tho Vimy Memorial to a farm a Flines, in Northern France. By failing to cover the distance in less than 75 minutes the rider, Roger Lapeble, may save a man's head from falling under the guillotine. Two years ago Rachel Renard was found murdered in a field near the Vimy Memorial. A few months later a farm labourer named Hervault was arrested. He confessed to the crime and then retracted his confession. He was tried and sentenced to death, but the judgment was upset and he is going to be tried agaiir by the Lille Assize Court this month.

At the trial it was said the girl was murdered at 8.15 a.m. Hervault's employer said that Hervault was in his farm 28 miles away at 7 a.m. The prosecution alleged that Hervault left the farm on his bicycle immediately after 7 a.m. and met the girl at 8.15. "I could not have cycled that distance —28 miles—in an hour and 15 minutes," said the accused man. The investigating magistrate asked Lapeble, the champion, to cover the distance at his fastest and it took him one hour and 41 minutes.