WIFE MURDER CHARGE

Southland Times, Issue 20495, 25 May 1928, Page 10

WIFE MURDER CHARGE

SEQUEL TO OUTBURST AT INQUEST. SON’S BELIEF IN HIS FATHER'S INNOCENCE. “This man seems to have been driven to desperation by a long-continued course of objectionable conduct on the part of his wife,” said the borough prosecutor (Mr J. H. Whittingham) at Bolton, when William Holland (53), a cotton waste sorter, of Haydn Street, Halliwell, was charged on his own confession with the murder of his wife. Holland’s wife was found at home dead, with her throat cut, and it was believed that it was a case of suicide until at the inquest the husband made a startling declaration of murder, which caused the inquest to be adjourned. William Holland, the accused’.# son, said that there had been quarrelling at home for as long as he could remember, owing to his mother's drinking habits. She was often drunk, whereas his father was a steady and sober worker who had never lost a day’s work. On the night of March 10 the witness returned home to find his mother’s body lying on the floor and a blood-stained razor near at hand. Asked if he believed it was a case of suicide, the witness exclaimed: “I believe my father hasn’t done it. I am certain.” HER LAST ERRAND. Holland’s next-door neighbour, Ralph Waterton, described the accused as “a perfect gentleman,” and his wife a-s “a very bad woman through drink and temper.” On the night of the quarrel, he added, he heard her say to her husband that she would cut her throat before the night was out, and when he saw her going out later she told him it was her last errand. Dr Sykes, house surgeon at the Bolton Infirmary, described the wound, and said that he had since found bloodstains on the man’s clothing. He agreed with Mr A. F. Greenhalgh, who defended, that without knowledge of any outside circumstances, “as a doctor examining a body,” there was nothing to alter his original opinion that it was a case of suicide. The hearing was adjourned.