CONVICTION QUASHED

Taranaki Daily News, 21 November 1929, Page 11

CONVICTION QUASHED

i CHARGE OF WIFE MURDER I ' _ -- , - - ... ’. DR. KNOWLES’ APPEAL HEARD Bathetic feature - of case British Wireless. • London, Nov. 19. Five law Lords; sitting -as the Judicial Committee 1 of the Privy Council which is the highest court in the land, concluded to-day the hearing of ’ the appeal of Dr. Benjamin’ Knowles against his conviction in Ashanti for the murder of his wife, Harriett Knowles, who was formerly a music hall artist known as- Madge- Clifton.: •.»' .

■ Lord Sankey,' 'the Chancellor, announced the decision of the Court in the following words :■ “We propose humbly to Majesty to allow the appeal and' quash the conviction. Our reasons will be given later. . : Dr. Knowles was convicted and sentenced to death in November of last year by an acting circuit judge at Kumaei. The sentence was afterwards commuted by the Governor of the Gold Coast to imprisonment for life. Dr. Knowles obtained leave to appeal to the Privy Council ’and was brought to England. He is at present lying ill in Maidstone Prison. ■ The questions, before the Judicial Chm*. inittee of the Privy, Council were whether there was jurisdiction to try the case without a jury and whether the verdict was justified by the evidence. According to the evidence Mrs. Knowles was shot with a revolver while die and Dr. Knowles were in their bedroom at their bungalow. According to a dying statement made by Mrs. Knowles, put in at. the trial, the affair wag an accident caused by her . sitting on the revolver. The prosecution contended that this statement was made by Mrs. Knowles to shield her husband; When the judgment was given the' sister of Dr. Knowles and the sister of Madge Clifton, who sat arm in arm, broke down on realising that he was free, A pathetic feature is that the mother of the dead woman, who' is nearly eighty, is still unaware of the tragedy'and is waiting in her Brixton home for her daughter’s return. " Dr. Knowles’ mother is living in Scotland and sold her old home to finance the appeal. ,-1