Great interest has been taken in a murder case tried
at Chelmsford this week. The accused, a clerk named James Canham Read, was believed to have shot, in Plaistow Marshes,, a girl named Florence Dennis, whom he had seduced, and the interest of the case consisted in the total absence of direct evidence. It was proved, however, that the prisoner had an interest in the girl's death, as her life would have led to exposure and demands for money ; that he had been seem near the place where her body was found ; that he fled OA receipt of the first telegram of inquiry ; that he possessed, a revolver, the bullets of which must have been similar to those found in the body ; and that he was a most profit. gate character, having seduced the victim's sister also, and another girl, whose evidence in Court seems to have produced a deep emotion of pity, Prisoner's counsel. was unable to account for his time on the day of the murder, no witnesses were called on his behalf, and the de- fence reduced itself to this, that prisoner was a scoundrel but not a murderer, the crime having probably been committed by some stray soldier. The jury found a verdict of guilty,. and the Judge fully concurring passed sentence of death. The prisoner reaffirmed his innocence, but no one in court seems to have doubted his guilt, although it was shown that the murdered girl's sister had perjured herself before the Magistrate. It is a case, we think, in which innocence is just conceivable, if Read was the victim of a long series of nearly impossible coincidences, but in which there is no reasonable reason for doubting the verdict.
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