“DON JUAN’S” FATE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 675, 29 May 1929, Page 13

“DON JUAN’S” FATE

MURDERER EXECUTED | LAST PLEA FAILS Joseph Clark, aged 21, the man who boasted that he had had as many loves as days in the year, and who pleaded guilty at Liverpool Assizes to the murder of Mrs. Fontaine, a widow, lost his appeal against the sentence of death passed on him after a trial which lasted only five minutes. The execution took place at Walton Gaol, Liverpool.Clark, it will be recalled, also tried to murder Mary Agnes Fontaine, the dead woman’s daughter, whom he had been courting, and made a dramatic confession of the crime at his trial. In the Court of Criminal Appeal, Clark’s counsel argued that Clark had made a false confession, which Tie nowwished to withdraw, and asked for a fresh trial. Giving judgment, Mr. Justice Avory pointed out that the Judge of assize had ascertained from the prisoner himself that he (Clark) fully appreciated the significance and consequences of his plea. The Judge then read from a long statement, written by Clark for the Court of Appeal, as follows: “I pleaded guilty to a charge of murder which I had not actually committed. “The reasons are because I felt that since It appeared that X was the direct cause of the death of someone who had been most kind to me, X must take the full consequences, because I knew very well that it would prove a heavy strain and severe ordeal to a witness who was In a v.ery delicate state of health, and whom I wish to save further pain and embarrassment. “As this is the deceased woman’s daughter, I felt I owed It to her to avoid as far as I could further agony and pain and the anguish that X knew the publicity of giving evidence would cause her.

"Counsel for my defence proposed the necessity of offering a plea of temporary insanity as my defence. This I could not, possibly countenance. “I felt it would be nothing short of bluff to offer a plea of insanity, as the assault I made on the deceased lasted for less than a minute, during which time X recovered my normal state of mind, and, realising what I was doing, I did my utmost to keep Mrs. Fontaine in a conscious state. “Since 1 liave been under sentence matters have been brought to my notice completely altering my perspective, and the full purport of the result of the post-mortem examination on the deceased had been brought home to me. “The fact that I had no intention or reason to cause the death of Mrs. Fontaine has convinced me that I made a great error in pleading guilty. “When my position became clear I felt it my duty to my mother and relatives to rectify the plea I had disinterestedly made.”

Clark then referred to the fact, disclosed by post-mortem, that Mrs. Fontaine’s lungs were unhealthy, and said that had she been a healthy woman, w hat he did would not have killed her. Mr. Justice Avory pointed out that the state of Mrs. Fontaine’s health was no defence to the charge. Clark, continued the Judge, did not dispute the Police Court evidence, which was that, having deliberately throttled Mrs. Fontaine, he left her for d.ead. and made a determined attempt to throttle Miss Fontaine, who only escaped after heroic struggles. Counsel had rightly advised that temporary insanity was the only possible defence, and Clark had rightly said that no such plea would have been successful in the circumstances. “The appeal is dismissed.”

Clark seemed somewhat overwhelmed when the significance of the decision came to his mind, and he was led from the dock by four warders with downcast head.