William Thomas Aldred

William Thomas Aldred was convicted of the murder of 44-year-old Ida Prescott and sentenced to death.

He cut her throat at 90 Manchester Road, Clifton, Manchester on 16 February 1920.

William Aldred had been a widower and had lived in Eaton Street in Pendlebury. He was described as a cotton factory operative.

Ida Prescott was also a widow and had lived at 90 Manchester Road in Clifton.

They had known each other for about a year and were on friendly terms.

They had both worked at Messrs Erman and Roby's Mill and although William Aldred was infatuated with her, she had not welcomed his advances. He was said to have constantly complained to his landlady that Ida Prescott had constantly refused to go out for a walk with him.

On 14 February 1920 Ida Prescott refused to go out with him and then again on 15 February.

On 16 February 1920 William Aldred didn't go into work but at noon he saw Ida Prescott leaving her work at the mill and also when she returned to work.

At 6.30pm later that day he went to 90 Manchester Road and let himself in via the back door and asked Ida Prescott for leave to take her son to Farnworth.

Shortly after he was heard to ask her to 'go out to the stumps' with him, referring to a bit of waste ground to the rear of the house. However, she refused. They then both went into the back kitchen where Ida Prescott was heard by Ida Prescott's daughter to say, 'Don't think you are being deceived, I have told you everything'. It was noted that it was thought that she had been referring to a remark by William Aldred that he had a rival in her affections.

Some minutes after Ida Prescott's daughter was told to go to bed but she said that she would wait up for her mother. Shortly after that Ida Prescott's daughter heard a scuffle in the back kitchen and then saw her mother come out with a gash in her throat and blood pouring down from a wound.

Her daughter then ran out of the house screaming and two men then ran into the house. When they went in they saw that Ida Prescott was dead and one of them asked, 'Who the ---- has done this?', to which William Aldred replied, 'It's me. I have done it. Tha's no need to get excited about it. I have done it, and I shall have to sit up for her'.

The man then asked him, 'What has tha' done it wi?' to which William Aldred replied, 'I shan't tell thee. Have I to confess to thee?'.

Ida Prescott's throat was found to have been cut from ear to ear.

When William Aldred was questioned at the police station he said, 'I have been courting her eighteen months. It is her own fault I have done it'. However, when he was charged with murder he made no reply.

The following day a blood-stained razor was found on the roof of an outhouse.

On 17 April 1920 William Aldred made a voluntary statement in which he said, 'It was in a fit of lunacy. They should have kept me in when they had me. I have been in an imbecile ward two years'.

At his trial the defence put forward was insanity, it being heard that between 1893 and 1903 he had been certified unfit to work owing to locomotor ataxy. After that in 1915 when his wife died he took to drink and in early 1916 he was admitted to the imbecile ward of the Barton Institution, and then again shortly after his release, in August he was readmitted again for a few days and it was submitted that since then that he had been peculiar in his manner and that there were many indications that he was insane when he did the act.

After he was convicted the judge asked him if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed on him, and he said, 'I am sorry. I must have lost myself completely. That's all'.

He appealed his conviction as well as for leave to call further evidence. However, the judges said that all the evidence had been before the court at the trial and his appeal was dismissed.

He was executed at Strangeways in Manchester on 22 June 1920.