SCENE IN COURT

Southland Times, Issue 21000, 5 February 1930, Page 5

SCENE IN COURT

CROWD OVERWHELMS POLICE. INCIDENT AT MURDER TRIAL. (Rec. 7.45 p.m.) London, February 4. William Podmore was committed for trial. An extraordinary’ scene was witnessed when a big crowd, mostly -women, overwhelmed the police and rushed the Court'house, and for a brief space disorder interfered with the hearing of the case. In January last it was announced that Scotland Yard was investigating the murder of Vivian Messiter, aged fifty-five, the Southampton manager of an American oil company, whose body was found with a revolver shot through the back of the head. The body was found inside a private garage at Southampton, which was padlocked on the outside, ten weeks after the disappearance of the victim. The police theory was that the murder was committed away from the garage, and that the body was taken there. A post-mortem examination revealed that death took place two months earlier. Messiter was last seen alive on October 30. Messiter, who was born in Somerset, had a lengthy residence in America and on the continent, and was a major with the Canadians during war time. There was an unexpected development in the Southampton murder case last month. William Podmore, a witness at the inquest, whose statement to the police suggested that he was the last man to see Messiter alive, was arrested by Scotland Yard officers as he was leaving Wandsworth Prison, and taken to Southampton, where he was charged with murder and remanded.