A DOUBLE LIFE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 911, 4 November 1933, Page 33 (Supplement)

A DOUBLE LIFE.

DRAMA OF A FLAT. ALLEGED CONFESSION. MURDER CHARGE PREFERRED. A dramatic episode at Bow Street Police Court, when a man was-charged with the murder of a young married woman, was the appearance of the husband in the witness-box. He said the marriage took place only last January and that he last saw his wife the night before she met lie" death, when they went out to dinner together. Then these questions were put by the defending counsel: Did you live happily together?—We were very happy. Never heard her talk of committing suicide?—No, nothing of the sort. You did not know she was carrying on with other men?—No. not at all. The husband, who lives at Ivilburn. added that he had never met the accused In the dock was Alexander Lionel Hoare, aged 38. a street trader, of Gray’s Inn Road, charged before Sir Rollo Campbell with the murder of Elsie Winifred Violet de Condappa, aged 21. He was remanded for a week. Airs, de Condappa, the wife of a French engineering student, was found dead with throat wounds in a room over a cafe in Gray’s Inn Road. Her husband gave the evidence already related. “I Lost My Temper.” Air. E. Clayton, opening the case for the prosecution, said that above the cafe there > was a flat which Hoare had rented in the name of Abbott for 10 or 11 weeks. Shortly < before midnight on September 11 Hoare entered Grays Inn Road police station in a dazed condition, accompanied by another man, and said: “I have cut my wife’s throat, go quickly. I left the razor up there. I lost my temper because she had been with another man and I love her.” Hoare had made a written statement, which said: “We had a row. She tantalised me to such an extent when we had a few words, and threw a hammer at me.” A lorfg statement, alleged to have been made by Hoare, was read by DivisionalDetective Inspector SkelJy. This said that Hoare and the woman had lived together for three years. A year ago she left him to go to another man, but returned two months later. The statement continued that the woman, while dressing to go out, remarked on the fact that the day was the anniversary of the day when she left Hoare, and said there was nothing to stop her leaving him again. Then (said the statement) Hoare lost his temper and did not know what he did. A young woman who was stated by the police to be Hoare’s divorced wife, asked the magistrate for permission to see him. Her request was granted, and she had a long interview with Hoare in the Court cells.