BLUE ANCHOR MURDER

Southland Times, Issue 19290, 8 July 1924, Page 5

BLUE ANCHOR MURDER

V.‘.Q™R FOUND GUILTY. DRAMATIC COURT SCENE. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, July 6. Remarkable scenes were witnessed during the closing stages of the trial at Guildford of the Frenchman, Vaquier, who was found “guilty” by the Jury, after a retirement of 90 minutes, of the murder of Alfred Jones, a publican at Byfleet, by administering poison to him. Asked why the death sentence should not be passed, Vaquier exclaimed excitedly: 'T protest. It is an iniquitous verdict. I swear on the graves of my father and mother I am innocent.” Vaquier began calmly addressing the Court, but quickly lost control and screamed out protests against English methods in the trial of a foreigner. Turning round in a frenzy, he struck a warder and struggled violently when others seized him. He was carried out protesting shrilly, declaring his counsel 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 thereafter was never to be believed. If she had been in any way responsible for Jones’s death was it likely she would have so rapidly administered the emetic and summoned a doctor? The former relations between Vaquier and Mrs Jones, particularly to a member of the Latin races, might be the most powerful motive for his desire for Jones’s death. In response to Vaquier’s request to postpone sentence, Mr Justice Avory said prisoner had been tried in accordance with the law, which was more favourable to the interests of foreigners than that of any other country.

In passing the death sentence, His Honour described it as a wicked and detestable crime.