TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1930, Page 6

TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE

RECONSTRUCTION OF CRIME.. FRENCH ivIETHOO.; IMPUGNED. ... Paris, Sept. .17. There was never-a more glaring travesty of- French methods of justice than that involved by an elaborate reconstruction at ’ i Touquet of the Wilson murder of 1928. The accused, a boy of 16, named Le Loutre, arrived, handcuffed to a gendarme. While a cordon of police held in check an enormous crowd of English o-irls and men in bathing costumes and smartly-dressed French women, who clustered excitedly near the scene, Le Loutre was freed of the handcuffs and told to sit where he is supposed to have been seen on the day of the murder. Then with a dramatic gesture the iud"e raised his hand and M. Matias, who is alleged to have seen the youth iust before the murder, took the centre of the "stage.” Smoking a cigarette, Matras stalked along the tram lines, while hundreds of cameras clicked, until he reached the youth, pale, nervous, sitting on the roadside. There Matras stopped. He told Le Loutre how to hold his hands and how to place his cap and, turning to the judge, said, “Now I formally recognise him.’ Le Loutre’s lawyer protested energetically, and he and the judge had a heated argument, which the crowd cnioyed immensely. Meanwhile a soundmovie waggon had arrived to him tie scene. After that, the unfortunate youth was taken to various places in the woods, th- scenes of other alleged attacks. Jne of the women concerned had a lit ot hysterics. The judge refused the sobbov’s appeal and made, him tell the°story in detail. A physical wreck the boy was then removed to the police station, where the evidence of the reconstruction was written down. The crowd dissolved. thoroughly satisfied with its free “show.” (< n The victim of the murder thus recoil structed” was a Mrs. Wilson. Matras, the chief witness against the boy, was the leader of the casino orchestra and at the time of the tragedy he was arrested and questioned for lo bourn.