Fit.-Lieut. Comper Posed as Member of LR.5. When Hit London, June 24.
Samuel Reeves, farm hand charged with the murder of the famous British aeroplane designer, fFlight-Lieut. Nicholes Comper, was freed today when the court found that there was insufficient evidence to place him on trial for the crime.
Comper, who designed the Commer-Swift plane, was killed when Reeves punched him in the jaw and he fell down and fractured his skull, dying of this injury.
The court found that Comper's death resulted from one of his own attempts at a practical joke. He had pretended to be a member of the Irish Republican Army and had waved around a lit giant firecracker while shouting threats against a nearby group of people.
Reeves was in this group and took swift action, pouncing on Comper and knocking him down, It was unfortunate that Comper fell so awkwardly as to fracture his skull But the court held that there was no justification for the trial of Reeves on charges of murder—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.