DRUMMER ELLIS'S MURDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19069, 15 January 1924, Page 8

DRUMMER ELLIS'S MURDER

DEATH PENALTY REMITTED. /WM Association —By Triegmph —Copyright LONDON, January 15. The Home Secretary announces that the investigation pmceming Lance-corporal ■ Dearniey lias been completed. The result does not touch the validity of the verdict, but it affords grounds for a remission of the death penalty. It is recommended that the sentence' be commuted to imprisonment for life.—A. and N.Z. Cable. i Dearniey was found guilty some months ago of murdering Drummer Ellis at Aidershot on May 25 last year. The body 'was discovered in a thicket. At the trial . the accused gave evidence that Elhs objected to his courting a Miss Store}’, and made offensive remarks. He decided to punish the deceased, and persuaded him to play Indians and allow himself to be tied with a rope to a tree. The accused told Ellis that he would return and release him, but he was prevented from returning the next day, and then he did not think it worth while troubling over the matter. The police gave evidence that the accused’s brother and mother were inmates of asylums. ' A few days ago a cablegram was received from London stating that the Home Secretary had received from Dearniey, whose execution was fixed to pike » place at Winchester Gaol on January 9, fresh information regarding the circumstances of the murder of Drummer Ellis, and consequently the execution had been postponed.- It was further stated that 30,000 persons had signed a reprieve petition based on Dearnley’s age.