DRAMA ON CANAL.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18159, 25 October 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

DRAMA ON CANAL.

TRAINING-SHIP YOUTH. ON MURDER CHARGE. Sensational evidence was given at Northfleet, Gravesend, against a training-ship boy who is alleged to have confessed to the murder of an unknown schoolboy. He was in court in uniform, but presented an unkempt appearance. The lad, George Walter Cooper, aged 17, though he looks younger than his years, belongs to the training-ship Cornwall, off Gravesend, and the specific charge against him is murder of an unknown person at ’Chalk. , He was interviewed, according to the evidence,- in Gravesend police station at midnight by P.S. Ward, who alleged that Cooper made a voluntary statement. This statement was to the effect that he was walking alongside the Gravesend-Hißham Canal the previous afternoon, when he met another boy who had a schoobag slung over his shoulder. Alleged Confession. * Cooper, according to the alleged statement, was wheeling a bioycle Which he, had stolen from a farm at Chalk and had a bar of Iron In his hand. ,He asked ’ the other boy if he had any money, and the schoolboy re-* plied, “No." The alleged statement continued: —I up with the piece of iron and hit him on the forehead. I then searched him and found a shilling. I hit him on the head again and threw him into the canal. I made my way to Cliffe Marshes and suddently turned back because it was getting on my mind. I met some ’boys and told them what I had done, and they detained me. In reply to questions, continued the sergeant, Cooper stated that he spent sevenpence of the shilling on a packet of cigarettes, a box of matches, two cakes, and a bottle, of lemonade. When charged with murder, Cooper expressed the opinion that the other boy was about 14 years old. •• On this evidence, Cooper was remanded, and in the meantime the whole length of the canal is being dragged, in search of the body of the boy referred to in the alleged statement.