William Francis Albert Bressington

William Bressington was convicted of the murder of 8-year-old Gilbert Caleb Amos and sentenced to death. He stranged raped and strangled him at Cozens Field, Staple Hill, Bristol on 12 December 1924. William Bressington had been a ship's steward. He was also noted as having been a moral pervert, and besides having been convicted three times since 1921 of stealing and loitering with intent, he got five months at Marlborough Street in March 1922, for importuning male persons about the urinal and in the Park at the Marble Arch. In addition to his recorded convictions, it appears from the records that in November 1923, at Cardiff, he stole a suit case from a man with whom he had gone to a low class restaurant; and in June 1924, he went to the lodging of a ship's cook, from whom he stole a wallet containing papers and £200 in Treasury Notes. However, in both cases the losers didn't seek to prosecute. William Bressington was also known at Cardiff as a male prostitute and used to patrol the streets with a painted and rouged face. He was also said to have sometimes dressed himself up in women's clothes. At the time of the murder he was living with his father, who had been a bootmaker at Bristol. Gilbert Amos had had two brothers, aged 11 and 2 years, and they all lived with their parents at Staple Hill, near Bristol. xxx2xxx Gilbert Amos and his family knew the Amos family quite well. On Friday evening, 12 December 1924, Gilbert Amos 's parents went out about 8pm, leaving the children at home. About 9pm William Bressington called at the house and the door was opened by Gilbert Amos's elder brother, and William Bressington said to him: xxxqxxx Your Auntie wants you. She has something for you. xxxqxxx However, the elder brother said that he couldn't go as he had to mind the baby, but Gilbert Amos said he would go, and he put on his boots and went out with William Bressington. It was noted however that the aunt, who lived some little distance away, had not sent any message to the children by William Bressington. About 10pm William Bressington's mother called her husband's attention to William Bressington, who was standing in the street. William Bressington, as was usual with him, had been away from home for some weeks, and his father went up to him and said: xxxqxxx What's up? xxxqxxx To which William Bressington replied: xxxqxxx I done it. I done it. xxxqxxx William Bressington's father then asked him: xxxqxxx What's that? xxxqxxx William Bressington said: xxxqxxx I can't tell you. I will take you to the place and shew you. xxxqxxx William Bressington then took his father and another man named, who had been with him, to a field near Staple Hill Railway Station, and shewed them Gilbert Amos's body lying on the grass in a far corner of the field. William Bressington's father then went for assistance and two signalmen from the Station and a police constable were soon on the spot. Gilbert Amos had been strangled with a necktie tied tightly round the neck. There was also a slit at the back of his trousers, and medical examination shewed that he had been outraged. When a police constable told William Bressington that he would probably be charged with murder and was cautioned William Bressington replied: xxxqxxx Yes, I murdered him. I put a tie round his neck. xxxqxxx According to the police constable's evidence, William Bressington signed a note to that effect in his note book and then fainted. He had also fainted after he had been handcuffed shortly before. One of the signalmen who was present said that he heard William Bressington, after he had signed the book, say: xxxqxxx There were two of us. xxxqxxx The doctor then asked him: xxxqxxx Who was the other one? xxxqxxx To which William Bressington said: xxxqxxx James. xxxqxxx However, the police report stated that it was not believed that there was any third person present, and in the confession that William Bressington handed up to the Judge at the Trial, there was no mention of anyone having taken part in the murder except himself. xxx3xxx The defence at the Trial was insanity. It was suggested that William Bressington had been an epileptic and that an attack from which his father said that he suffered in April 1920, when he was brought home by police constable in a fit, was a true epileptic fit and attack of grand mal. It was also suggested that the fainting fits shortly after the body was found were probably attacks of petit mal. However, against that evidence, there were the reports and the evidence of the Medical Officer of Bristol Prison to the effect that William Bressington was neither insane nor mentally deficient, and that he had not found any indication of epilepsy at all. The Medical Officer, had had William Bressington under observation before, in 1921, when William Bressington had made some sort of attempt at suicide while in Bristol Prison. As regards epilepsy, he pointed out in evidence that, if the crime had been committed during an epileptic condition, William Bressington would not remember what had happened at all during the attack, whereas William Bressington had almost immediately afterwards informed his father of what he had done. There was also the fact that William Bressington had apparently watched until Gilbert Amos's parents had gone out and then induced him to accompany him by falsely representing that his aunt wanted to see him. Another doctor, a resident Medical Officer of a private mental institution near Bristol, and a Medical Superintendent at Fishponds Asylum, gave evidence for the defence to the effect that William Bressington had been insane in that he didn't know that what he was doing was wrong, and also expressed their opinion that he was subject to attacks of grand mal and petit mal. When William Bressington was found guilty, the Jury recommended him to mercy on account of his weak mentality. The Judge added: xxxqxxx This conclusion, in my opinion, exactly represented the position. Bressington was a man of very low intelligence and of little or no moral sense but was in no sense insane so as to be irresponsible for his act, judged by the accepted tests. xxxqxxx William Bressington appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal but his appeal was dismissed. The police report stated that they saw no grounds for a medical inquiry, as would happen if insanity was suspected, stating that, so far as they could see, the evidence of the experts called for the Defence, taken in conjunction with the facts proved, did not raise a sufficient case for further medical inquiry. The report noted that a man who conducted himself as William Bressington had done, and who committed a crime of that kind, must be of weak mentality, but that it didn't appear to them that he should, on that account, be held to be irresponsible. Moreover, the report stated that the mental experts who had examined William Bressington and put forward their theory of epilepsy and petit mal, although they didn't seem to have gone further than to suggest mental defectiveness, had not had the advantage of reading William Bressington's own account of the crime which he handed to the Judge. The police report stated that it seemed clear that the case was the not uncommon one of that in which a man who committed an outrage upon a child, who knew him well and would have no difficulty in identifying him, had therefore decided to murder the child. It was added that no doubt William Bressington's nerve broke down and led him to confess to his father. The police repoort concluded as such that they felt there were no grounds for interference with the sentence. William Bressington was execuuted at Horfield Gaol in Bristol on 31 March 1925. The fields round Staple Hill Railway Station have since been developed.