During his journey, and subsequent search, he inquired of numerous people — including a policeman — directions to "25 Menlove Gardens East", the address Qualtrough had given.

[a] When investigations into other suspects such as Richard Gordon Parry fell flat, the Police charged Wallace with murder.

[b] At the committal hearing, several factual misstatements were made by the Prosecuting Solicitor, and these were widely reported in the local press.

The feeling in Liverpool was anti-Wallace, and although the jury was selected from outside the city environs, they came from nearby towns, which could have been infected by prejudice.

Wallace cut an austere, fusty figure, and his stoicism throughout his ordeal, combined with his intellectual hobbies of chess, botany and chemistry, gave the impression to some of a cold, calculating killer who had contrived to commit the perfect murder.

Roland Oliver, KC, assisted by Sydney Scholefield Allen, led for the Defence (instructed by solicitor Hector Munro of H.J.

Indeed, the investigating officers' fingerprints were found all over the crime scene, and in different photographs of the same rooms many objects are in different positions or even entirely absent.

The trial judge, Mr. Justice Wright, summed up for an acquittal: This murder, I should imagine, must be almost unexampled in the annals of crime .

If you are not so satisfied, if it is not proved — whatever your feelings may be, whatever your surmises or suspicions or prejudices may be — if it is not established as a matter of evidence and legal proof, then it is your duty to find the prisoner not guilty.There was general surprise when, after an hour's deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty.

Mr. Justice Wright, after pointedly omitting the customary thanks to the jury, passed the mandatory sentence of death on William Herbert Wallace.

In a unique act, the Church of England offered special prayers - "intercessions extraordinary" at Liverpool Cathedral.

Finally, you shall pray for all who await the judgement of their fellow-man, and commit them to the perfect justice of Almighty God.The prospects for Wallace's appeal were not good, however.

Lord Chief Justice Hewart: "Are you not really saying, if it be assumed this appellant committed the murder, other circumstances fit in with that theory?"

The ruling, delivered by Lord Hewart CJ said: The...obvious fact is that the case is eminently one of difficulty and doubt.. Now, the whole of the material evidence has been closely and critically examined before us, and it does not appear to me to be necessary to discuss it again... Suffice it to say that we are not concerned here with suspicion, however grave, or with theories, however ingenious.

... the conclusion at which we have arrived is that the case against the appellant, which we have carefully and anxiously considered and discussed, was not proved with that certainty which is necessary in order to justify a verdict of guilty, and, therefore, that it is our duty to take the course indicated by the section of the statute to which I have referred.