THE TORONTO MURDER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19347, 30 June 1925, Page 5

THE TORONTO MURDER

TRIAL BEGINS PATHETIC SCENES WITNESSED Received June 30, 12.5 a.m. SYDNEY', June 29. The trial of Oakes has commenced, accused pleading not guilty. In opening his address, the Crown Prosecutor said the Crown case was that there had been a cold, calculated, callous murder, probably without equal in the annals of Australian crime. He then detailed the evidence, previously cabled. Pathetic scenes were witnessed when the father and mother of the dead girl took the Witness stand to testify against the accused, both breaking down badly, but each was able to identify Oakes as the man who married their daughter. Oakes, giving evidence, said the dead girl had known him slightly over a year. He had taken her to parties, and had her visit him at his home while his wife was absent in Sydney. He then said that after his marriage with the girl she told him she was m a certain condition. After they had some wine at the cottage at Toronto she twitted him that he was not responsible for that condition, and asked him what he would do if she told his wife. Accused added that with the wine he became raving mad, and did not know what he did. Afterwards, when he w’oke up in the morning, he was lying alongside the body. When he saw the horrible sight, he said: ‘‘Oh, God, what have I done?’ , Continuing, prisoner said he had gone through the wedding service for the purpose of protecting the girl. He did not intend to injure her. He sacrificed his wife in doing so.

(Oakes, a married man, went through a form of marriage with Mona Beacher. They went to a cottage at Toronto, and as they did not make an appearance for some days, search was made, with the result that the woman’s nude body, with the head battered in, was found lying on the bed. Over the body were scattered aricles of her trousseau.)