Arthur Simms

Arthur Simms was convicted of the murder of his 9-year-old sister-in-law Rosa Armstrong and sentenced to death. He strangled her in a Field near Calladine Lane, Sutton-in-Ashfield on 27 June 1924. Arthur Simms had joined up in 1917 and gone to France in March 1918, and taken prisoner in April but released after the Armistice. He re-enlisted in March 1919 and was sent to India, where he was discharged for misconduct in February 1921. His Army character was 'indifferent', for both terms of service. In December 1921 he married and at the date of the murder had been living in Phoenix Street in Sutton-in-Ashfield. His wife's mother also lived in Sutton-in-Ashfield at 78 Alfreton Road with her little daughter Rosa Armstrong. xxx2xxx Arthur Simms was said to have been very fond of Rosa Armstrong, and had been in the habit of giving her presents of sweets, etc. From early in June 1924 Arthur Simms had been unemployed through illness, gastritis. On 27 June 1924, Rosa Armstrong set out from her mother's house to return to school at 1.15pm. About 1pm Arthur Simms was seen by an acquaintance standing near to Houthwaite School, to which Rosa Armstrong was going. At about 1.30pm another man saw Arthur Simms with Rosa Armstrong near Calladine Lane, only a few fields from the spot where Rosa Armstrong's body was eventually found. At about 7pm that evening, Arthur Simms went to the house of his wife's parents, who lived at a village 4 or 5 miles away from Sutton-in-Ashfield. His wife found him there and described him as being restless and somewhat strange in his manner. Arthur Simms and his wife later returned home about 11pm and went to bed. In the meantime, Rosa Armstrong's mother had become anxious about 4.30pm, earlier in the day, when Rosa Armstrong failed to appear from school, and after telling the police, she went to Arthur Simms's house at 8pm and then again at 10pm, but found that on each occasion he was not in. However, she then went again at 1am, and Arthur Simms hurriedly dressed and ran downstairs, and she asked him: xxxqxxx Have you seen Rosa? xxxqxxx To which he replied: xxxqxxx No, God strike me dead if ever I have seen her. Let me pass. xxxqxxx He then rushed out, jumped the gate, and appeared to have then gone straight to Mansfield, about 3 miles away, where at about 1.40am in Market Place, he gave himself up to a police constable, saying: xxxqxxx I want to give myself up for murder. It is my wife's little sister at Sutton. I done it this afternoon. xxxqxxx At the police station, after being cautioned, he said: xxxqxxx It is my wife's sister, Rosa Armstrong, of 78 Alfreton Road, Sutton. You will find her under the hedge in the second field of mowing grass near St Mark's Church, Fulwood. I strangled her with my hands. xxxqxxx The police officer then handed him a sheet of paper and he wrote down an exact description of where the body would be found. xxx1xxx A search was then made for Rosa Armstrong, whose body was found in a field of mowing grass as Arthur Simms had described. She was found lying on her face, with her legs wide apart. The bootlace of her left boot was missing, and it was found tied tightly round her neck with a knot under the left ear. It was noted that the doctor that examined her seemed to have done so in a somewhat perfunctory manner, without a proper post-mortem, and without even apparently making an incision, and concluded that he found no signs of sexual outrage. He didn't detect any bruising such as he would expect to find if the girl had been gripped tightly with the hands, but it was noted that as he didn't make any incisions, that it seemed possible that bruises might have been present under the skin, although not outwardly visible from the discolouration caused by the tying of the bootlace. There had evidently been a struggle as the grass was trodden down in a five-yard circle about eight yards from where the body was found. There were also some signs of violence on Rosa Armstrong. The skin was broken on the left of her nose and the skin was rubbed off the right ear. There was also a small red wound on the inside of her left thigh, and two specks of blood on her right thigh. The police report stated that they thought that the marks were, in their opinion, important as pointing to some sort of attempt to approach the child's parts. However, the doctor stated that he thought that her death was due to strangulation and that he thought that that could have bene effected by tying the lace round her neck without touching her throat with such violence as to cause any bruises. At his trial Arthur Simms's defence was one of insanity, however, there was no evidence whatever to support that. The prison medical officer was quite clear that he was perfectly sane, and could find no trace of insanity or epilepsy about him. The defence relied upon the absence of motive, the absence of any attempt to conceal the body, the fact that Arthur Simms's mother's uncle had been insane and alleged head injuries Arthur Simms sustained whilst a prisoner of war in Germany. As a matter of fact, when Arthur Simms was formerly asked: xxxqxxx Were you treated brutally? Or did you see anyone else treated brutally? xxxqxxx He didn't mention any violent ill-treatment of himself by the Germans, but gave an instance of another prisoner of war having been beaten. He only complained of vermin in the camp and bad food. The police report stated that Arthur Simms had evidently waylaid Rosa Armstrong on her way to school and had taken her to Alfreton Road to a shop where she was proved to have bought a bag of sweets. He then took her to the field where her body was found where it was thought that he probably attempted some indecent familiarity with her, and when she resented it, and possibly said she would tell her mother or sister, or his wife, he strangled her. It was thought that it was not unlikely that he might have catched her by her throat, and that she might have fainted, after which he finished her off by tying the bootlace round her neck. When found, she had still been clasping in one hand the bag of sweets which she had bought, and in the other hand a strand of grass. xxx3xxx The police report concluded that there was no reason to think that Arthur Simms was anything but perfectly sane and that to allow the question of the hardships experienced in Germany six years earlier, or the malaria he caught in India, to be used as an excuse for such a horrible murder of a little girl was out of the question. When he was convicted at the Nottingham Assizes on 1 November 1924 there was no recommendation to mercy, and he was executed at Nottingham on 17 December 1924. The location of the crime has since been redeveloped, but was just off the end of where Lynton Drive is today in the wooded part between 34 and 45 Lynton Drive and the carpark.