MURDER CHARGE

Wairarapa Daily Times, 13 June 1932, Page 5

MURDER CHARGE

TRAGEDY IN A FLAT ACTRESS ON TRIAL. Press Association Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received Monday, 8.35 a.m.) LONDON, Sunday. Crowds of fashionably dressed women waited in a queue outside the Westminster Police ui.it \,ikii -Mrs Elvira Dolores Barney c....rgecl with the murder of Miciiati ouqmeii. Prosecuting t-ouiw. related how neighbours early in the morning heard Mrs Barney scream: “Get out of my house, I hate you, I will shoot you.” Then they heard shots and cries of anguish, Mrs Barney exclaiming, “I love you so, Chicken; tome back and I’ll do anything you ask me.” A doctor found Mrs Barney kneeling beside the body kissing it and saying “I love you.” She was in evident distress. Mrs Barney ’s statement to the police was that she quarrelled with Stephen about a woman. He attempted to take the revolver from her and the weapon went off during the struggle. Sir Bernard Spilsbury would give evidence that it was not impossible but extremely improbable for the wound to have been accidental, or for deceased to have shot himself. A gun expert would give evidence in support of the theory that it was impossible for deceased to pull the trigger and inflict a wound of this character and position. The Crown was also tendering a second charge of shooting at Stephen with intent to do grievous bodily harm on lOth May. Accused was remanded till 18th June,

(A previous London cable stated: — Mrs Elvira Dolores Barney, an actress, and uJUgliter of Sir John Mullens, a retired stockbroker, has been arrested and remanded for a week on a charge of having murdered Michael Stejflien, son of a bank manager, who was found dead, shot in the chest, in Mrs Barney’s luxurious Kensington flat. Deceased’s brother stated that Michael Stephen’s debts were frequently paid by his father. Michael Stephen had denied living with Mrs Barney, whose husband is in the United States. The tragedy is another result of the notorious night-life in dance dens frequented by Avell-to-do people on the fringe of society).