POETIC JUSTICE

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10888, 16 July 1928, Page 7

POETIC JUSTICE

PROSECUTION OF AVI DOW. United Prese Assn—By Electric Telegraph—Convi-i glit. London; July 6. Airs Beatrice Annie Pace met poetic justice when Mr Justice Hor ridge at the close.of he prosecution’s ease ruled that there was no case to go to the jury. Thus the tragic widow was released from an ordeal which has no precedent within living memory, and lasted six months, which is an exceptionally prolonged period for British justice. The widow became a pathetic picture of woe, repeatedly 7 collapsing under the long-drawn strain, until the public lost patience, and demanded that the matter be brought to trial forthwith, or the widow released from her suffering. The Paces lived on a Starveacre farm on a bleak moor in the Forest of Dean, where they kept a few sheep. The husband died early 7 in January at tlie age of 36. The police stopped the funeral, and a post-mor-tem was held on the body of Pace. An inquiry occupied 19 weeks, considerable attention being focused on the medical evidence that death was due to arsenical poisoning. The prosecution of Airs Pace, who is 35 years of age, with a family of five, including a babyinarms, followed the inquiry, on a charge of murder. Evidence showed that Pace had ill-treated his wife, and is was suggested that at least three doses of arsenic had been administered between Christmas Day, 1927, and the date of Pace’s death. The evidence! of a nine-yenr-old son of the Paces was that his mother had done everything for his father, during his illness. Mrs Pace, in a statement to the police, said that Pace had frequently threatened to poison himself. The accused was committed tor trial on June 4.