HOTEL TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1924, Page 4

HOTEL TRAGEDY.

LICENSEE POISONED, MURDER TRIAL OPENS. FRENCHMAN IN DOOK. By Telegraph-Press Assn. — Copyright. Received July 3, 8.50 p.m. London, July 2. The trial of the Frenchman Vaquiar, on a charge of murdering Alfred G. P. Jones, licensee of the Blue Anchor Hotel in Byfleet, Surrey, has commenced at Guilford. After gasping that he thought he had taken poison, Jones expired within fifteen minutes of swallowing a dose of bromoseltzer on the morning of March 29. As the result of investigations Vaquier, who was said to have purchased poison from a chemist, was arrested by the police. At the trial there was a large court, comprised mostly of fashionably dressed young women, who waited in a queue outside the court. Vaquier pleaded not guilty. Mr. Patrick Hastings, K.G., and Sir E. MarahallHall, K.C., prosecuted, Mr. Curtis-Bennett appeared for the defence. Mr. Hastings said the Crown sought to prove that in the nature of the relations between the accused and Mrs. Jones lay the motive for the crime. The defence was that Mrs. Jones was a woman of the type for whom no one would commit a crime. Mrs. Jones was examined for nine hours. She denied improper relations with Vaquier, or that she misconducted herself with her solicitor during her husband’s illness.