The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1894-11-17 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE VERDICT AND SENTENCE  EMPHATIC PROTEST OF  DEN/AL OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE  OB.IME.  At Chelmsford ASaiZall on Monday. before Baron Pollock, James Combs= Read (37), a clerk to the Loudon and India Joint Docks Committee, was indicted for the murder of Florence Dennis, at Scut henchon June 24. A second indictment charged prisoner with stealing £159 from his employers. Great interest was manifested in the proceedings and special arrangements were made for the accommodation of the public.—Baron Pollock on the previous Friday emphatically directed the attention of the Grand Jury to the peculiarities of the bullet which wee extracted from the murdered woman's brain, and with regard to the prisoner's relations with other women he impressed upon them that though his conduct.' ; was, to use a mild expression. of a sensual descrip- ! tion, it were not to be dealt with as leading to the supposition that a man who led such a life would ! necessarily commit murder; at the same time these I relations had an important bearine upon the Cabe owing to the different eirmmstances mixed up , with the life of the prisoner. Read's reply ! to the chairman of the Southend Bench, a few minutes before he was formally committed for ! trial, was—" I desire to assert most emphatically my perfect innocence on this chargs. 1 I wrote Mrs Ayriss on June 27th that I had not seen Florence Dennis for 1 eighteen months. That is absolutely true." -H The prosecuting counsel were the Solicitor- , General (Mr Lockwood), Sir Gill, Mr Avery, and Mr Stephenson. Mr Cock, Q.C., and Mr Warburton defended. Prisoner, who has much altered in appearance since his incarceration, pleaded not guilty to the capital charge, and guilty to the indictment for theft. The Solicitor - General opened for: the Treasury, tracing the priseemr's al- ! leged connection with the girl Dennis from the time of his introduction to her by her married sister, with whom prisoner had immoral relations, until the discovery of the body of conveyed. The learl counsel detailed the history of the eonce ed oommunications and seduction by prisoner of third person. Miss Kempton. It was an important fact that prisoner and Florence Dennis were together at Ilanwell at the time when it had since appeared Florence became pregnant. Prisoner sea-minted for his absence from MIBS Kempton on June 94 by stating that he was suing on business to Canterbury. That was an invention. All prisoner's explanations of his whereabouts on that clay proved to be false, and this added enormous signiticancm to the theory of the prosecution—namely-, that Read was the last person who saw the girl alive. A witness would be called who would identify the prisoner Read as having been seen in company with a woman at Prittlewell. near Southend, on Sunday, June 24th. He was subsequently seen alone in ; the same locality, and the subterfuges to which he resorted on and after June 25 pointed to an uneasy conscience. The Solicitor-General concluded a three hours' address by urging that the facts irresistibly pointed to the prisoner's guilt.— The evidence for the Crown opened with the production of plans of the scene of the tragedy, and witnesses were called RS to the discovery of the hody.—Polhe.Sergeant Marden said on his arrest prisoner replied to the charge with the words, " You are on the wrong scent. Mrs Ayriss can tell where the revolver is. Mrs Ayriss knows mere about this than I do." In Reed's pocket was a newspaper report of the coroner's incpiest.—After other evidence the court actourned.