NAME CLEARED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19783, 26 April 1934, Page 11

NAME CLEARED

A DEATH-BED CONFESSION. It would be hard to recall a case as tragic as that of Georges Duteil, who returned to his native village near Arles, broken in health and spirit. Twenty years ago La was a student in his native Provence, the idolised son of a respected bank manager and a doting mother. Unfortunately he got into bad company, and to meet gambling del 1 s he stole money from his father and mother. To avoid scandal the father replaced the money but warned the son that in the case of future lapses he would be denounced to the ,-olic-. After he had gone to bed the father and mother had a sad heart-to-heart talk over the son’s lapses, and decided they would give him another chance. But in the night something happened to change the whole course of four lives. The night-watchman sur. ised a young man forcing open a safe in the bank, and when he rushed to seize the intruder he was shot dead. Drawn to the scene by the firing, the father rushed to the bank in time to see the assassin disappear into the night. His shock on findir.-; the watchman dead was intensified by the fact that he was positive the flying figure was that of his son, and his suspicions were confirmed when he found his son’s room empty. The son refused to account for his movements, and though no part of the stolen money was traced to him, it was acrumed that it had been "placed" with some of his evil companions.

Sobbir.gly, father and mother had dragged from them the story of the past faults of their son, and the father was positive in his identification of the fu. ivc ass sin. In face of this the inevitable .erdict of guilty was returned, the accused only escaping the death penal j becau. jof mpathy for his parents. Only in "the last few months did the death-bed confession of the actual criminal, transmitted to the Ministry of Justice in Paris by the priest who received it, result in the opening of an inquiry that has resulted in the release of the innocent victim of a father’s stern sense of duty.

It seems that he had been in the habit of secr-tly meeting hi. sweetheart after her parents had gone to bed, and on the night of the crime he had gone there with the intention of telling her of his disgrace and of his desire to release her. Fearing to compromise the girl, In had kept silent about where he had passed the vital hours.