Noah Percy Collins - “The Abertridwr murder” “Because she refused to kiss me!”.

 

Noah Percy Collins - “The Abertridwr murder” “Because she refused to kiss me!”.

21 year old Noah Percy Collins was a collier at Abertridwr, and lodged with the

 Lawrence family at 5 Aberfawr Terrace, Abertridwr. Mr. Lawrence was away at sea at the time of the murder.  His wife took in lodgers and Collins shared a room with a Mr. Donovan and the Lawrence’s son.

Collins had fallen for 19 year old Ann Dorothy Lawrence, who went by the name of Dorothy, but she was not interested in him.

At about six o'clock on the morning of the 17th of August Dorothy had got up to prepare her brother's breakfast, and was alone in the kitchen. Around 7.15 a.m. screams were heard by the mother, who was in her bedroom. Mrs. Lawrence rushed downstairs, and on her way heard Dorothy shout, “Oh, Ma!”  In the kitchen she found Dorothy, lying on her back on the floor in a pool of blood.

 Her throat had been cut and she had been stabbed four times, with three wounds to the back and one to her chest that had penetrated her heart.  There were two knives on the floor. The Lawrence’s neighbour, a Mr. Williams went for the police.  Collins left the house, climbed over a fence and ran along the railway line, where a signalman saw him with a blood-stained bandage on one hand. Collins said: “Fetch the police when you like. I meant to give myself up.”  

At the police station Collins told officers what he had done, adding that he had “weighed it all up” before committing the murder.  He made a statement in which he said ““I intended going to work on the screens. 

I heard a man had left, but I thought I would wait, for two reasons first, to see how Dorothy would be to me. Of course, if she would be all right, I would go to work. I asked her if she would kiss me. She refused, and ran around the table, and said she would shout to her mother. Then she made for the door. It was then that I lifted-up the knife to her”.  It was discovered that Collins had purchased the two knives used in the murder at Cardiff a week earlier. 

Dorothy’s younger sister, Beatrice aged fourteen, was interviewed by officers and told them “I was in bed at, the time, and did hear a quarrel between my sister and Collins, but about ten minutes to seven there was a shout of ‘Mam’ and then mother and I went downstairs to see what was the matter. I saw my sister lying on the floor, bleeding. I think Collins wanted to keep company with my sister, but my sister was not willing. I have never heard a quarrel between them. Collins had been lodging with us for a little over twelve months.”

Collins came to trial at the Glamorgan Assizes by Mr. Justice Bucknill on the 11th of December 1908. The defence at trial was insanity, which was rebutted by the prison doctor.  It took the jury just seven minutes to reach a verdict.  Mr. Justice Bucknill told Collins that he “could not hope for mercy”.  

As was not unusual a petition for a reprieve was got up locally.   

In the condemned cell at H. M. prison Cardiff, Collins was ministered to by the Catholic chaplain, Fr. Van den Heuvel who prayed with him to the end and led the procession to the gallows.  The South Wales Daily News tells us that the gallows was housed in a shed at the end of A Wing and was whitewashed inside.  The beam stretched across the whole width of the shed and there was a white T chalked on the trapdoors.

Collins was hanged at 8.00 a.m. on Wednesday the 30th of December 1908 by Henry and Thomas Pierrepoint. The drop was reported as 7’ 6”.  The inquest was held before the City Coroner, Mr. W. L. Yorath, later that morning.  The governor Mr. Harrold le Mesurier gave evidence of identification and Dr. Herbert Cook, the prison doctor, declared that death was “instantaneous” due to dislocation of the neck.