Harold Amos Apted - for child rape and murder.

Harold Amos Apted was the 20 year old son of Thomas Apted who was a builder’s and coal merchant in Tonbridge Kent. Thomas owned a dark coloured horse drawn van which Harold drove for deliveries. Harold also taught Sunday School and Bible classes.

At 2.20 on the afternoon of Tuesday the 31st of December 1901, seven and a half year old Frances Eliza O’Rourke was sent on an errand by her father, John, to pick up a package for him from his employers, Messrs. Jenkinson at Tunbridge Wells. She collected the parcel and left for home at around 3.50 p.m. She was seen by Ethel Muggeridge, Mrs. Hollamby and a girl named Dupont between 4.30 and 4.45 p.m. getting into a horse drawn dark coloured van and sitting next to its driver close to the Cross Keys Inn in Vauxhall Lane near the Tonbridge to Tunbridge Wells road. Conrad Smith recognised the van’s driver as Apted. Some workmen saw the van stationary in the lane and two of them saw Frances beside the van. An hour later the same van was seen by a Mr. Roe without Frances, being driven at speed down Primrose Hill from Vauxhall Pond towards Tonbridge. Frances’ parents reported her missing and a search was launched. It was dark by now and the body was not discovered until the following day, when a Mr. Doust on his way to work spotted it by the side of the pond.

Frances was nearly naked and had been stabbed behind the ear. The knife was still embedded in her hair. It is thought that Francis was thrown from the van. Dr. Watts of Tonbridge testified that France’s death had been caused by the stab wound to the neck and that she had been raped.

Mrs. Hollamby (also given as Holloway in some accounts) came forward and said she knew who normally drove the van that the police were looking for. It was Harold Apted. A Police Sergeant went to Apted’s home and found blood on his jacket and discovered that the knife had been lent to him by a man named Hawkins. He was thus charged with the murder and at Tonbridge Police Court on the 18th of January was committed for trial at the Kent Assizes.

The trial was held at Maidstone on the 25th and 26th of February 1902 before Mr. Justice Wright. The above evidence was presented by the prosecution. Apted’s defence was weak at best. The jury had no hesitation in convicting him but made a recommendation to mercy on account of his age.

Apted made no confession in the condemned cell, nor in a letter he wrote to his parents shortly before execution. He was hanged at Maidstone prison at 8.00 a.m. on Tuesday the 18th of March 1902 by William and John Billington. Apted weighed 145 lbs. and was given a drop of 6’ 9”. The gallows was some 20 feet from the condemned cell. The procession to it was led by the Chief Warder, followed by the governor, Major Dundas and Under-Sheriff Mr. F. R. Hewlett, with Apted and the chaplain next. Behind them were the Billington brothers and several warders. The medical officer, Dr. Charles Hoar brought up the rear. A crowd estimated at 500 people had congregated outside the prison to see the black flag unfurled. They were able to hear the thud of the trap doors open.

The inquest was held before Mr. T. Buss, Coroner for the Tonbridge Division of Kent. The jury were permitted to view the body and it was noted that Apted’s neck was swollen and that there was an abrasion beneath the angle of the left jaw, caused by the eyelet of the noose.

In the time Apted was on remand and awaiting execution, Frances’ parents began receiving threatening letters which said they would be killed if Apted was hanged and that the writer was the real murderer. Another demanded money. Police apprehended the author of these letters - 17 year old local boy, Alexander Moore. It is not known what happened to him.

By 1902 newspapers were able to print pictures and drawings of Apted and Frances appeared in the Evening Express of the 13th of January of that year.

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