CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE EXTRAORDINARY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 10, 27 June 1884, Page 21

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE EXTRAORDINARY.

The Halifax Record relates a remarkable case of circumstantial evidence which has just occurred in the English county of Middlesex, in which one George Manners, came near suffering the extreme penalty of the law for the murder of Edmund Lascelles, when he was entirely innocent of any crime. It appeusthac Manners was engaged to be married to Lascelles' sisier Mary. Lasoelles was a morose and sullen fellow, and he objected to the attentions oE Manners towards his sisters ; the two men had an altercation over the matter, and Manners was overheard to say : " Next time, Mr. Lascelles, I shall not ask for your hand ; I snail taks it." Upon this he departed and was soon after followed by Lascelles. About eleven o'clock that evening two men knocked at the door, bearing in their arms the dead body of Lascellles, who had been murdered with a knife and a bludgeon. Following them was Mauiiers, with hands and clothing blood-stained. The dead man's ri^ht hand, on which h« had worn a sapphire ricg, had been cut off and was nowhere to be found. Manners was arrested. At his trial a farm labourer testified that as he was nearing the park gate Manners turned towards him, exclaiming: " Quick ! quick I help I Mr. Laacelles has been murdered 1 " tie found that the murdered man's hand had been cut off at the wrist, and asked him if he knew who did it. He said : " How horrible ! " Ibe labourer proposed looking for the hand, but Manners objected on the score of losing time and that the doctor must be sent for.He said to Manners it was a desperate struggle, aad Manners said Jjascelles was a very strong man. but not quite as strong as himself. Manners said nothing more, except " Who will break it to his sister 1 " during the trial the sister had to testify to the last interview held with her brother and the peculiar words addressed him by her lover Manners was thereon found guilty and sentenced to death. His friends prosecuted the search for the missing hand, which was at length found in the cellar of a barn belonging to a man named Parker. There was with it a blood-rusty knife. Parker admitted his guilt. Lascelles had met him that night, and, as was his j**? IVbegan1 Vbegan taunting and insuring him. In a fit of anger Parker killed him with a stake, and, in order to remuve his ring, cut off the hand at the wrist and took it home with him. Mtnners was thereupon released, and married his sweetheart ; but it was a narrow escape from the other kind of a noose.