BEACH MURDER CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1920, Page 10

BEACH MURDER CASE.

EX-OFFICER ON TRIAL DEFENCE PLEADS INSANITY. London, Feb. 10. The trial of Frederick Rothwell Holt, a young man, formerly an army officer, who is charged with the murder of Kathleen Breaks, has begun at the Manchester Assizes.

The defence put in a plea of delusional insanity, arising from the prisoner's war experience.

The rase is exciting extraordinary interest, and a queue a-quarter of a mile lons awaited the opening of the Court. Counsel for the defence- questioned Holt's competency to plead- The jury deliberated upon the point and decided that Holt should be called upon to plead.

Holt thereupon pleaded not guilty in a clear, steady voice.

The mysterious murder of Kathleen Breaks, a young and beautiful married woman, who was stabbed in the neck and head, caused a great sensation. Her body was found on a lonely beach between Blackpool and St. Anne's-on-Sen. Investigation indicated that death was lingering, and due to shock, loss of blood, and exposure, extending for many hours. The loneliness of the scene of the crime left only the slenderest hope of timely discovery. The dead woman had been separated from her husband for IS months, anrt the tragedy was apparently the result of a love affair.

Holt and Breaks occupied a. room at Bradford as man and wife. Breaks insured h'er life on November 2R for .■enflfiO, and revoked her will, making another bequeathing the insurance and jewellery to Holt.

By remarkable detective work the foot-prints of the man and woman were traced in the wet sand for miles to the lonely spot at St. Anne's-on-Sea, where the body was found. Here the path narrowed, and it was impossible for two to walk abreast. The woman's footprints abruptly 1 terminated, and the man's footnrints continued a-wth-