THE prosecutor cautioned magistrates.

“Your feelings will almost certainly be moved by the circumstances which led to the tragedy.

“In the house were found two dead bodies. One in the dining room at the back of the house and another, that of a child, in the kitchen near the gas stove.”

He then told them: “You need not concern yourself at all with the body found in the dining room. It was that of the accused’s husband and it was ascertained he had died of cancer.”

So began the opening address of D C Crisp, prosecuting on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions, to examining magistrates as the alleged killer sat in the dock in a floral summer dress and grey coat, flanked by two wardresses.

Bessie Shilton, 24, described as a dark-haired, attractive woman, had been charged with the murder of her two years and 11 months old daughter, Linda.

Both had been found lying in a gasfilled room at their home. Her husband, Norman, 29, a former postman, had passed away after a two-year harrowing battle against cancer.

The couple had been married in 1949 and when the news of his illness was confirmed, both recognised there would be no cure. He had refused to go to hospital, despite his doctor’s advice, and Shilton had nursed him to the end.

The last person to see him alive on that fateful day, August 16, 1953, was a district nurse and she reported that his wife appeared her usual calm and collected self, but when her motherin- law went to their home that afternoon, she received no reply from a firm knock on the door and summoned the help of a neighbour.

As soon as he clambered into the property through a window, he smelt gas.

Mother and daughter were later found lying side by side on the floor.

The former survived, the latter did not.

Shilton, who had apparently also taken a large dose of aspirin with the remnants of the bottle scattered over the table, was charged with murder at Salisbury Infirmary.

As she was charged, she lay in the arms of a woman police officer PC Enid Thomas, lamenting: “She cried in my arms because her daddy was dead. I couldn’t bear it. I didn’t mean to kill her. She was perfect, everyone said she was too perfect to live and I loved her so much. She was a great comfort through all the trouble I had.”

At the committal proceedings at Salisbury Magistrates’ Court on September 9, 1953, magistrates also heard from Shilton’s motherin- law.

“They were a very devoted couple,”

Frances Shilton confirmed. “Even before Norman was taken ill, they never wanted visitors. They were content with each other’s company and that of their daughter.”

Mrs Shilton added: “The house was always spotlessly clean. She was an absolutely devoted wife to my son and a good mother to their little girl. She worshipped Linda.”

John Stephenson, defending, asked: “Would it have been the last thing you would have thought your daughterin- law would have done, to murder the child?”

She replied: “Well, you know why she did it. It is the last thing I would have expected.”

Det Sgt Thomas Shales told the court of three letters found on a table in the room where Mr Shilton had died. One was written by his wife and addressed to her parents.

It read: “Well my dears, I am writing this last letter to you with a broken heart for Norman has passed on and I have nothing left to live for.

Don’t think I don’t love you dearly though. Believe me I do, I do, but my love for Norman was even stronger, as ours has been a perfect partnership and because our love and contentment for each other was so perfect, it seems it was too good for us to share more than four years.

“For now, the love of my life has been taken away from me so Linda and I are going to join her beloved daddy in the world beyond.

“I don’t want you to fret mum and dad, as I could not live without Norman. I am sure you would not want me to die of a broken heart.

“I cannot write any more, dears, so be brave. You have the boys and their families to keep you company for I know they love you both and will take good care of you both for me.”

At the completion of the evidence, chairman E R Grant told her that she would be committed for trial at the Assizes. She replied: “Yes, sir. Thank you.”

Shilton, of Queen’s Road, Salisbury, was then committed at Wiltshire Assizes.

Her trial on October 5 lasted a mere three-and-a-half hours, with Shilton exhibiting little or no emotion as the tragic proceedings unfolded.

In his opening, prosecutor H J Phillimore reflected of their marriage: “These two people were devoted to each other. Indeed you will hear that it was one of those rare things – an ideally happy marriage.”

The defence called Dr Thomas Christie, principal medical officer at Holloway Prison, who told the court that on admission, Shilton was depressed and suffering from a disease of the manic-depressive type.

“This is a recognised disease of the mind,” he explained to jurors. “The symptoms were such that had I been called as a private doctor, I would have unhesitatingly recommended her immediate admission to a mental hospital for observation.

“During her time in hospital, she has gradually improved. The severe stage has passed but she is not yet free of the possibility of a recurrence.”

The doctor said that her husband’s illness had almost become an obsession, saying: “All this stress and strain in due course began to tell.

“This, added to the fact that she wrongly feared her husband’s illness might have been transferred to her child, who she could see was a perfect living specimen, set up a defect of reasoning. The defect of reasoning would be so severe that she would be incapable of knowing that what she was doing was wrong.”

Such was her improvement that he no longer regarded her as certifiably insane.

Jurors, who included three women, took just five minutes to return a verdict of murder but insane at the time of the act.

Mr Justice Parker ordered her to be detained as a Broadmoor patient until the Queen’s Pleasure was known.