REALISM IN TRIAL

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1935, Page 5

REALISM IN TRIAL

STRANGE MURDER CASE

CHANNEL ISLANDS COURT

RECONSTRUCTION OF. DEED

FAINTING OF MAGISTRATE

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright

London, April 9.

One of the strangest murder trials in British history was held at Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, where the island law enforces the purple robed jury to debate the verdict in open court in a maimer audible to all spectators. Gertrude De La Mare, aged 27, a housekeeper, accused of cutting the throat of her farmer employer, Alfred Brouard, aged 76, and forging his will in her favour, to-day re-enacted how she found the corpse of her employer, who she alleged had committed suicide. The bloodstained bed was placed below the dock and a policeman of similar build to Brouard lay on the bed. The accused woman folded his hands and placed the body in the correct position and the reconstruction was repeated. During the cross-examination De La Mare, looking up from the re-arrange-ment of the “corpse,” calmly answered questions. The jury had previously attended Brouard’s home where the prosecution’s entire case was reconstructed for their benefit. , Even fate stepped in to enhance tne unusualness of the Guernsey trial. One out of the eleven jurats (a jurat is a magistrate for life in the Channel Islands) during the height of the dramatic evidence, when a barber’s dummy of a gashed head was being displayed _ in court, fainted and became unconscious from a heart attack. Nevertheless, with the consent of counsel for the prosecution, the defence trial may continue before the remaining jurats, as only seven are needed for a quorum. De La Mare was shown the dummy head with a red gash marked by Sir Bernard Spilsbury, Home Office pathologist, in order to aid the cross-examination as to whether she believed such a gash could be self-inflicted. After four hours’ questioning De La Mare showed signs of fainting and was told by the judge to take a walk in the fresh air.