SOLDIER'S CAR MURDER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18920, 23 January 1936, Page 13

SOLDIER'S CAR MURDER

SENTENCE OF DEATH RUNNING GIRL DOWN LONDON, Doc. 1. The "motor murder" trial at Winchester Assizes ended yesterday .when the accused. Arthur Charles Mortimer, 27, a lance-corporal in the Welsh Regiment, was sentenced to death. He had been found guilty of the murder of Phyllis Mary Doreen Oakes by running her down with a motor-ear. 'Mortimer betrayed little emotion when sentenced, though he moved his lips slightly and shook his head as he, was 'taken below. In the morning, while counsel wa s making the final address for the Crown, Mortimer's young wife was. in the main entrance hall of the court buildings. She spent the time trying to ieur.h her baby to walk. To and fro she went holding hei\baby by the arms. She was not in court when sentence wits passed. On Mortimer's behalf it was pleaded that when lie was young he had an accident which was followed by fits, and a doctor expressed the view thai he was an epileptic subject. Mr J. G. Trapnell, K.C., for the prosecution, insisted, however, that there had been a complete failure to put forward evidence that would justify a verdict of "guilty hut insane." Mr Trapnell contended that they .could not think that this was a case of hick of memory or recollection, or that the man was in a state of automatism. The man's driving, when followed 'by the police, was "in desperation to escape because he knew what he had done—when his hunting- was finished and he was being hunted." Mr Justice Finlay, /summing up, described the ease as a "grave and certainly remarkable one." If the jury Wi'rt' satisfied that Mortimer was driving the car, they might arrive at the conclusion that this was not merely a .case of gross and culpable carelessness, but that it was sonicthing more, and that the driver did run down the young woman deliberately. PRISONER'S MEMORY "Prisoner appears to have had a pretty gooil memory except for the really crucial things," said the judge. Turning to the "very dramatic chase in the streets of Guildford," his lordship remarked: " You may think that shows prisoner was now endeavouring to get away front arrest and that lie drove the ear in oik; sense most recklessly—'because of the very undue speed in a crowded area, passing traffic lights and so on—'but thai he drove with a grenl deal of skill." They might think that the real point of the case was whether the verdict should be guilty of murder simply, or-guilty but insane. Dr drierson had said the man was an epileptic and, although he had not had a. tit for a long time, that did not mean that he might not have one at any time.