“HUMANE. LAW”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume III, Issue 199, 12 November 1934, Page 6

“HUMANE. LAW”

WIFE ACQUITTED. NOT GUILTY OF MURDER. Husband Refuses Evidence. A mother was found not guilty of murder at the Old Bailey after her husband had declined to give evidence against her. Mabel 0. Dodimeade, aged 36, of Whitchurch Gardens, Edgware, pleaded not guilty to the murder of her month-old son, Keith. Pier' husband, a master builder, wak asked by the judge if he desired to give evidence. He replied“My lord, I have been married 9 years and have lived happily, with my wife., and I *do not wish to give evidence against herd’ Depressed. Mr. Gerald Dodson, prosecuting. ' said Mrs. Dodimeade; had. been happily married for nine' years and was in comfortable circumstances. In 1981 she gave birth to . a stillborn child, and since* then she had been depressed. The boy Keith was born and when she cqme back from the nursing home Mrs: Dodimeade seemed low-spirited and depressed. The husband found his wife lying, on the bedroom floor two weeks later wth the gas turned on from a gas stove. The window was open,and this, said Mr. Dodson, might throw some light on her mentality. The husband rushed out with the child and called a doctor, but the ■ baby was dead. To Inspector Brown she said, “Oh dear, I wish I could cry.” Humane Law At the close of the case for the prosecution, Mr. Thomas Dawson, defending, submitted that as the husband had declined to give evidence, there was no evidence to go before the jury that Mrs. Dodimeade had murdered the- child. Mr. Justice Atkinson: “I agree. The only evidence wo have now is that the doctor received a child who was gassed from the husband and ■'that" the room itself smelt of gas. ' Without the husband’s evidence there are all sorts of possibilities as to how the child might have died. ’ ,

The judge told the jury; “You appreciate that by mir laVr neither husband nor wife is a witness against the other. If they .do not choose to give evidence, the law does not make them do sp, and it is a very humane law,” Mrs. Dodiraeade was found not j guilty and discharged. No evidence was offered' on a further charge of attempting to, .commit suicide. ' . ' ' ,