LOVE DRAMA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 16, 19 January 1940, Page 7

LOVE DRAMA

YOUTH FOR TRIAL HOTEL WORKER SHOT STORY TOLD TO COROX EK. MELBOURNE, Jan. 11. In the Coroner's Court to-day 1 was alleged that a youth murderet the husband of the woman he loved. The youth is Maurice Ansell, 19. H( was committed for trial on a charg( of having murdered Alfred Thoma Atherton, 35, hotel employee, a Lower Ferntree Gully on Decembe: 20. Police alleged that Ansell told then that he lured Atherton to the loneh spot to murder him, and before doin' so drank two bottles of beer with him Mrs. Dorothy Mary Atherton, slim pretty, and dressed in black, said sh< was aged 31 and the mother of fiv< children. She said she had been livin' with Ansell for about three months. “Ansell has been kinder to me thai any man I have ever known,” sh< added. She had been married to Athertoi for 13 years, and had left him threi years ago. "He drank heavily, ill-treated me and did not give me enough money oi which to keep house,” she said. Wanted a Divorce. Mrs. Atherton said she told Ansel that she was going to have a child t him. and wished to divorce her hus band and marry him. On the night of December 20 sh went to the pictures with anothe woman. The next day Ansell handed her copy of a newspaper reporting th death of her husband, and said, “If bad luck. Keep your chin up.”

I Senior-Detective Rosenwarne told the coroner that Ansell had made the following statement: — "Mrs. Atherton and I have been living together as man and wife for some time. “She is going to have a baby. “I love her and would like to marry her. “One day I met Atherton at the Australian Club Hotel. “I told him his wife was working at a guest house in Ferntree Gully, and would like to see him. "Actually she was not at Ferntree i Gully but living in a room with me at Carlton at the time. • “I arranged to meet Atherton anc ■ to go with him to Ferntree to see hie > wife. : “I met him at 9 o’clock on the night : of December 20. “I had a loaded pea-rifle wrapped ir i brown, paper under my coat. Alleged Statement. “Atherton and f caught a train t( ; Lower Fernree Gully and walked to- ' gether towards Boronia, where I tolc ' him he would find his wife. ’ “Atherton said, ‘I suppose she i running about with other men. Sh( J got into trouble to another fellow ’’ once before, and if I thought she wa: that way again I would kill her.’ ” J Rosewarne said that Atherton re ' mained silent for a moment with hi; face in his hands, and clenched ant ’ unclenched his fists. Suddenly, said Rosewarne, Ansel looked up and said, “I knew she wai in trouble to me. and I said under m; breath. ‘I will kill you first.’ 1 “I looked at Atherton . > "He had his head turned away fron -me. and I slipped the rifle out fron under my coat and shot him in th< e side of the head,” the statement con r eluded. i Telephone your “Wanted’’ Adver s tisemente to the “Chronicle,” Phom 2191.