THE BYFLEET MURDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19218, 8 July 1924, Page 7

THE BYFLEET MURDER

END OF VAQUIER TRIAL. A VERDICT OF “GUILTY.” REMARKABLE SCENE IN COURT. Prcu Araociation —By To'-egrnph—Copyright. LONDON, July 6. There was a remarkable scene at the close of the •trial of Vaquier at Guildford. The jury, after a retirement lasting 90 minutes, returned a verdict of “Guilty.” Asked why the death sentence should not he passed on him, Vaquier exclaimed exciledlv : “I protest. It is an iniquitous verdict. I swear on the graves of my father and mother that [ am innocent.” Mr Justice Avory, in passing tho death sentence, described it as a wicked and detestable crime. Vaquier began calmly addressing tho court, hut lie quickly lost control of himself. and screamed nut protests against tho English methods of Irving a ' foreigner. Turning round in a frenzy, he struck the warder, and struggled violently. Ihe other officials seized him, and he was carried out protesting shrilly and declaring that his counsel (Sir Henry Curtis-Ben-nett) had let him down. Mr Justice Avory, in summing up, insisted that it did not follow because a woman had been unfaithful to her husband that her evidence was never afterwards to bo believed. If she had been in any way responsible for Jones’s death was it likely, his Lordship asked, that she would have so rapidly administered an emetic and summoned a. doctor? Tho former relations between Vaquier and Mrs Jones, particularly to a member of the Latin races, might he a most powerful motive for Vaquier’s desire for Jones's death. In response t£» V.oquior’s request to postpone sentence, Mr Justice Avory said that he had been tried in accordance with a law which was more favourable to the interests of foreigners t ban that of any other country.—A. and N.Z. Cable.