The Murder at Holme Pierrepont
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4501800205 |
| Date | 01 April 1945 |
| Published date | 01 April 1945 |
| Author | A. Shand |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Murder at
Holme
Pierrepont
By
DETECTIVE-INSPECTOR
A.
SHAND
Nottingham
Constabulary
THI S may appear to be rather an unusual case of murder inasmuch
as it was necessary to conduct the investigation
"in
reverse."
This
state of affairs arose owing to the fact
that
a man in custody had
declared he had, some nine years earlier, murdered a woman at Holme
Pierrepont, Notts.
The
Police had no knowledge of the murder, they were
not
in
possession of the body, there was no evidence as to the identity of the
deceased, and it ultimately proved to be a plain story of a crime of
which a man had carried guilty knowledge over a considerable number
of years and, having had it so long on his conscience, felt he would
rather the world should know, and accordingly confessed.
On September rrth, 1941, the Buckinghamshire Police interviewed
a farm labourer by the name of George Hewitt, aged 54 years, in con-
nection with offences of housebreaking and false pretences which
had recently been committed in
that
county. Hewitt agreed he had
been responsible for the false pretences only, and in view of the fact
that
he had been resident in
that
district for a number of years he was
not taken into custody at
that
time. However, on September
rzth,
1941, Hewitt, after shooting his collie dog, went to the Officer in charge
of the local Police Station and
said:
"Now
I will tell you something
I have held for years. I murdered a woman in 1932."
In consequence of this declaration Hewitt was cautioned. He
volunteered astatement in which he disclosed that early in 1932 he had
spent the night with a prostitute in a barn, on a farm at which he was
then employed at Holme Pierrepont. He alleged that the following
morning he discovered the
sum
of
£2
had been stolen from his wallet.
He accused the woman of the theft
but
she refused to surrender the
money. Hewitt added that after he had murdered the woman he
extracted the sum of
£2
from her handbag and buried her body in
the
ground under a large manure heap.
Hewitt continued in employment as a farm labourer in this district
until May 1935. He kept his secret to himself; therefore the question
of a murder having been committed in that locality did not arise.
The
field in which the remains were buried is situate in low-lying
country near the River
Trent,
and is only suitable for grazing land.
The
body had not, therefore, been disturbed.
Particulars of the statement made by Hewitt were communicated
!OO
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