He wanted us to imagine it was 1934 and we were in Lewes Assizes, attending the trial of Toni Mancini, in the second of the famous Brighton Trunk Murders, and decide how we would have voted if we had been the jury. We were told the trial was particularly notable in that the prosecution team included Quintin Hogg, later Lord Chancellor, and defence counsel was Norman Birkett, who, as Lord Birkett, would go on to be a prosecutor at the Nuremberg war trials. The judge was Sir George Branson, grandfather of Richard Branson.
Peter distributed hand-drawn plans of relevant parts of Brighton so that we could see the exact configurations of the buildings he was referring to. As the evidence mounted, it seemed to us that Mancini was guilty, but in 1934, although the evidence had been presented in a different order, and it had taken over 2 hours, rather than 40 minutes, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
40 years later, Toni Mancini, would confess to a News of the World journalist that, after a row with Ms Kaye, he had snatched a hammer from her and struck the fatal blow to her head. Double jeopardy was still in force so he could not be retried. A criminal, not the first, had slipped through the net!
Wednesday April 16th. Bognor Golf Club. Lunch 12.30pm.
Richard Worsley will speak on RNLI with an emphasis on the role of women.
For more information, including our full list of varied speakers for 2025, please visit
https://probusclub.net/bognorregis/
New members are always assured of a warm welcome and are invited to come along and try the club. Please contact Guy Ashby 01243 584042 or Bill Page 01243 841246.