Returning a verdict that Arthur Robinson had murdered his sweetheart, an Old Bailey jury recommended mercy because, they said, “he was controlled by the superior will of the woman.”

Robinson, a labourer, of Bostall Heath, Bexleyheath, cut the girl’s throat, almost severing her head from her body, on JANUARY 20th, 1908, then made an attempt at suicide. At his first trial the jury disagreed on the question of his sanity. At his second trial in March, he was found guilty, with the mercy recommendation.

The cause of the couple’s problems was that she was pregnant by him, and it was this which led to their agreement to die together.

Both the judge and the Home Secretary supported the jury’s recommendation and Robinson was sent to prison for life. He was released after 10 years, in September, 1915.