I went with the counsel on both sides to view the scene of the
tragedy, and it was agreed that the counsel for the prosecution should
indicate as well as he could the case for the Crown by merely stating
undisputed facts in connection with the premises.
The flight of steps, as I have said, led from the courtyard to the
first landing.
The door opened outwards, and the first visible piece of evidence was
that some violence had been exercised in forcing open the door on the
occasion of some one making his or her escape from the building, for
the staple into which the bolt of the lock had been thrust showed that
the door had been locked on the inside, and that the person coming
from the premises must have used considerable force in breaking
through.
The key was not in the lock, neither had it fallen out, or it would
have been found somewhere near. It had evidently been taken out and
secreted, because it was found at the bottom of a dustbin a long way
off from the staircase and in the room occupied by the prisoner.
There was one additional fact at this part of the view which I must
mention. A bullet was picked up near the door. It had struck the
opposite wall, and then glanced off and hit the other wall close to
the door.
The bullet had been fired from the landing above; this was indicated
by the direction as it glanced along the wall, and, further, by the
mark it had left of its line of flight from the landing above, for it
had struck against the low ceiling of that spot as though the person
firing had fired in a hurry and had not taken sufficient aim to avoid
it.
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