BOURNEMOUTH TRAGEDY

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 21

BOURNEMOUTH TRAGEDY

MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER. LONDON, May 6. Thomas Henry Allaway, aged about 30, who was arrested in Reading on a charge of stealing a cheque-book valued at two shillings, has now been charged with the murder of Miss Wilkins in a field at Bournemouth on December 23 Last. Allaway will appear at the Bournemouth Police Court on Monday. [The body of Miss Irene Wilkins, aged 30, of Streatham, whefe she lived with her mother, brother, and sisters, was found under circumstances which pointed to murder, in a field near Tuckton .Farm, Iford, a lonely district about a mile from Bournemouth. Miss Wilkins had advertised for a situation as cook. A telegram arived at her home asking her to proceed to an address at Bosoombe. near Bournemouth. She was delighted at the prospects of securing a situation and immediately replied that she would go to Boseombe. She then received a second telegram saying that she would be met at the 'station by a motor-car. Without losing any time she at once set off for Bournemouth. and that was the last that was seen or heard of her by her family until The discovery of the dead body in the field. Her telegraphed reply to the Boseombe telegram was returned, not long after she had left, with an official intimation that the address was unknown. The telegram from the fictitious address, the fact that a car —a dark-coloured taxi —was seen near the spot of the murder, and certain peculiarities of spelling in the telegram to her—corresponding with peculiarities in a telegram to another young woman whom it was attempted to lure to Bournemouth—constituted the foundations upon which the police had to work in the case.]