HACKED TO DEATH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19358, 13 July 1925, Page 2

HACKED TO DEATH

GIRL’S AWFUL END

SENTENCE OF DEATH. ‘‘INCREDIBLE INHUMANITY.’’ SYDNEY, July 2. What will go down as one of the most sensational murder cases in the I aunals of Australian crime concluded lon Tuesday when Arthur Augustus Oakes was found guilty of having murdered Mona Beacher at Toronto, Lake Macquarie, and was sentenced to death. Ln passing sentence, the Chief Justice said that the way Oakes had hacked and hammered the unfortunate young girl was an example of extraordinary brutality and incredible inhumanity. Dramatic scenes marked the Court proceedings. Huge crowds struggled at the Court doors to gain admittance, and there was practically a riot on the' opening day. resulting in a Court official being injured. There were fre- j quent outbursts in the Court from |

grief-stricken relatives, and more than once the proceedings wore held up while sobbing people were assisted from the Court. Mona Beacher, who was in her twentieth year, was married on May 15 at Newcastle. She and her husband left, apparently to spend their honeymoon in Sydney. Beyond the receipt of a telegram purporting to have been dispatched from near Sydney, nothing further was heard of the young bride until the finding of her body on May 2.1. in a lonely cottage at Toronto. Her head had been smashed in with a hammer, ami her throat cut with a razor. On the following day, Oakes, a married man with two children, employed ns packer at Newcastle, was charged yitn the murder. The evidence showed that Oakes, al-

though a married man, had beeu j ay- j ing attention to Mona Beacher for ' about two years. About six months be- • fore her death he became her suitor, and visited her house, which was not far away from his own. He asked ' permission to marry the girl, out her father was at first loth to give permission on account of the girl’s youth. Eventually the marriage took place. After the wedding, Oakes, under ait assumed name, took the cottage at Toronto. It was here that the body of Miss Beacher was. found live days later. Oakes went into the «vitness box and

gave evidence. He said he ha.l been married about six years, and there | were two children of the marriage. He j said he knew Mona Beacher was in a. • certain condition, and afterwards she ■ sc.i I that they had better get married. Referring 1o the night of the tragedy, he said:— “We were, both under the influence! of wine. She told me I was a fool, and I she twitted me with the fact that I j was not the man responsible for her 1 trouble, and said that 1 was a fool to have run away from home. My mind then became clouded. J seemed to go raving mad. 1 don’t know what J did. I I woke up next morning and found that 1 was lying beside her body. I said • to myself : "What have I done!” * "The sole reason that I married this’ 1 girl was to protect her, not to injure ■ her. J stuck to this girl all through [ like a man. 1 sacrificed my life, and I she turned round and abused me. J ! hai' no intention whatever of taxing j her life.” Cress-examined by the Crown, accused said he went mad when he saw the dead body ami did not know what h * was doing. He was terribly a<’- i fe< ted. Thu Crown Prosecutor: I tak? it vou killed this woman some time on Saturday night?—About .10 or 11 o clock. Accused admitted that he went back to his family after the tragedy as if noth : ng had happened, and at Ins work showed no unusual signs. Oakes was subjected to a vigorous cross-examination concerning burned and charred clothing, and a bloodstained razor and hammer, all of which, it was shown, he had attempted 10 burn in the stove. It was revealed

( that he had tried to remove traces of r [how the crime had been committed by I • burning these weapons with which he . I committed the murder. There was sensational evidence who;. I lhe admitted that he was committing ' | [perjury in the witness box. Oakes, it; appears, had told the mother of the ; (dead girl that his mother had died [ [from cancer. In the witness box lie • admitted that his mother was now i living. Medical evidence was called to show I that examination of the prisoner in the gaol showed he was quite normal, an<U that there was no suggestion of in I i sanity. In the witness box he main itained a peculiar demeanor, suggesting insanity. When questioned on this, a mentaT specialist said it was something. • absolutely new. It was affected stupiJ.- ! ity. i The jury returned with a verdict of guilty after twenty minutes’ absence.. In passing sentence the Chief Justice said that he fully agreed with the ver- . diet. He did not see how the jury • •could have arrived at any other con-j [elusion. Oakes had attempted to blacken ami defame the character of the girl, whose lips were scaled iu . , death, to save his own life. “On the face of the callous indiffer- [ | once which you have displayed. said j the Chief Justice, “and the apparent ; ■absence of remorse, I fear that any [attempt to awaken you to the recognition of the atrociousness of your [wrong-doing, and any admonition to ' you to repent, the evil you have done, ' would probably be wasted. 1 propose I to say no more.