MURDER TRIAL FOLLOWS ON MYSTERY OF BLAZING CAR

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19239, 28 November 1930, Page 7

MURDER TRIAL FOLLOWS ON MYSTERY OF BLAZING CAR

Counsel Suggests Accused May Have Staged Own Apparent Death.

(United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received November 28, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, November 27. That Arthur Alfred rouse, who was charged with murder following the discovery of a man’s charred body in a blazing car, might have desired the body found in the car to he mistaken for his, thus enabling him to disappear and escape liabilities arising from his relations with a number of women to whom he was paying money on Court orders in addition to his wife, was the remarkable suggestion of counsel at the resumed trial. The body is still unidentified.

Counsel pointed out that the wooden mallet on which human hairs were found near the car belonged to Rouse. Sir Bernard Spilsbury’s post-mortem examination and other findings were consistent with the ■victim being ren-. dered unconscious, the body put in the car, soaked with petrol, and set alight. According to Rouse’s statement to the police, he picked up an unknown man on the Great North Road, left him in the car temporarily, saw lire break out, and ran away panic-stricken. He added: “I know several women, but it is an expensive game. My harem takes me to several places. My wife does not ask questions now.” Rouse was remanded.

i So badly burned that at first even ; the sex was hardly distinguishable, the ■ body of a man was found in the smoul- [ dering remains of a baby car near Hard--1 ingstone village three weeks ago. The ; 1 police arrested the owner of the car, - Arthur Alfred Rouse, who protested his ) innocence. Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the j famous pathologist, lengthily examined . the charred remains, and throughout > England inquiries were made in an t endeavour to establish the identity of 3 the dead man. The only clue was a 3 piece of suit cloth, which escaped the fire. Rouse was later arrested on a charge of murder.