William Ambrose Collins - a sexual deviant?

 William Ambrose Collins - a sexual deviant?

21-year-old Collins was hanged by Thomas and Albert Pierrepoint at 8.00 a.m. on Wednesday the 28th of October 1942 within the Condemned Suite that had been constructed at the end of Durham prison’s D wing.  Collins weighed 140 lbs. but was described as muscular on the LPC4 form.  Pierrepoint gave him a drop of 7’ 11” and this caused fracture dislocation of the upper cervical vertebrae and some damage to the soft tissues of the neck.

Collins who was a Merchant Navy apprentice, had been convicted of the murder of 24 year old Margaret Mary Rice in Cleremont Road, Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne in the early hours of Saturday the 13th of June 1942.

Margaret was a corporal in the WAAF and had gone with her husband of two months, Lt. Patrick Rice, to Newcastle Central station to see him off on his journey back to his base.  It appears that she was observed to be alone by two young men having a coffee in the station buffet, after her husband’s train had departed. 

The following morning her body was discovered by James Jones, a milkman, on the grass verge between No.’s 22 and 23 Cleremont Road.  She had been battered to death and her clothes had been pulled up leaving her virtually naked.  Police found two pieces of the vulcanite handgrip from a revolver near the body, which appeared to have come from the murder weapon.  

Collins visited the police station a few days later on the grounds that he had been in the area of the murder on that day and lived close by, in Framlington Place.  He gave the police a detailed statement of his movements on the day.  He and his friend Edward Morgan had gone for a drink in the Royal Oak pub on the Friday night and had ended up at the railway station buffet to get a coffee.  

Morgan was able to confirm the story but told police that he had sold Collins a Webley revolver that evening.  Police searched Collins’ house where they discovered the gun and immediately noted that part of the handle had been broken off.  The two pieces that they already had fitted perfectly.  Collins was therefore charged with the murder. 

He was tried at Newcastle on the 26th and 27th of August before Mr. Justice Cassells. 

The prosecution would claim that he was a sexual deviant and had returned to the scene to collect a trophy of the victim.  His defence was that he had sustained a head injury in a cycling accident and this had led to mental problems and that he was under the influence of drink.  It took the jury just 20 minutes to reach a guilty verdict.

The appeal was heard before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Asquith and Tucker and dismissed on the 13th of October.