MURDER IN DREAM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 750, 24 August 1929, Page 31

MURDER IN DREAM

MAN KILLS WIFE AND CHILD FOUGHT GERMANS IN SLEEP The theory that a murderer was in a dream state and not responsible for his actions was successfully jmt forward at Liverpool Assizes recently. John Edward Jones, aged 42, a labourer, Liverpool, was indicted before Mr. Justice Charles for the murder of his wife, Mary Bridget Jones, aged 35, and their 10-months-old child, Eileen Sheila Jones, by striking them on the head with a hammer. The jury found Jones guilty but insane, and he was ordered to be detained during his Majesty’s pleasure. Dr. Ahern, of Walton Prison, said that when admitted Jones was in a very agitated state, but he did not regard that as an indication of insanity. Jones had said he had been struck on the head with shrapnel during the war. Replying to Mr. Maxwell Fyfe. for Jones, Dr. Ahern said that if Jones had committed murder in a dream state he would, on recovering his sense, have expressed horror, or at least surprise. | Mr. Maxwell Fyfe, for the defence, ] said that often at. a recurring zero ■ hour of his own Jones would fight his I battles with the Germans over again. | One witness stated that he had seen | Jones fighting Germans while leaning j on the bedrail. ! L>r. Robert G. Walmsley, a specialist ill mental diseases, said that lie had come to the conclusion that Jones suffered from a disease of the mind which might be described as epileptic. | At the time of the tragedy he probI ably had a cloudy consciousness of the ! physical quality of the act. but had i no idea of its moral quality. | Mr. Fraser Harrison (prosecuting): j Do you think that he murdered his ) wife in a dream or dream state? —Yes, 1 would call it an epileptic dream , state somewhat akin to somnambulism.