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The brutal murder of Minnie Reid in Co Armagh

By Joe Baker featureseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

ON August 3, 1932, a group of children came across the body of a woman lying in some bushes near Derryane in Co Armagh. They immediately contacted the local police who set up a murder investigation. The CID from Belfast were soon at the scene and upon further investigation identified the remains to be Minnie Reid. Her throat had been cut.

ON August 3, 1932, a group of children came across the body of a woman lying in some bushes near Derryane in Co Armagh. They immediately contacted the local police who set up a murder investigation. The CID from Belfast were soon at the scene and upon further investigation identified the remains to be Minnie Reid. Her throat had been cut.

The scene of the crime was covered in dense undergrowth, which made the search for clues more laborious. A bloodstained razor was eventually found in the undergrowth about 14ft from the body. Head Constable Slack, of the CID, and District Inspector Anderson conducted the investigations and after a fortnight the police trail led them to arrest a man named Harold Courtney, a 23-year-old motor driver from Dungannon. After being questioned at Coalisland, he was charged with murder and taken into custody.

FORENSIC EXAMINATION

In his statement Courtney acknowledged that he had known Minnie for four or five years but had never kept her company at any time. He claimed he heard she had gone to work at Portadown but did not hear where she was until he read of her death in the papers. He further said that he read she had gone to Vernersbridge Station, and then to Verner's Inn, to meet a man on the Monday before her death. Courtney could not account for his own movements on that date, claiming he had been in so many places he could not narrow it down to a specific location. Courtney's clothes were taken from him after his arrest and sent to London for forensic examination.

Soon after, he was returned for trial at the Ulster Winter Assizes at Downpatrick, before Lord Justice Andrews, and the case excited the keenest interest all over Northern Ireland.

ENGAGEMENT

The defence case claimed "not guilty" while it sought to prove that the woman had possibly committed suicide. Courtney, to this end, was magnificently defended by Mr William Lowry, Kings Counsel, and Mr B J Fox, and the trial lasted for five days, with almost 50 witnesses being examined. In the witness box Courtney had a severe ordeal. In his direct examination by the Crown he admitted that practically all his statements to the police were fabricated, but he claimed that he lied because he did not want his name linked to Minnie as he was engaged.

He said Minnie had asked him to meet her in Portadown on July 12, and as he was going there to a drumming party he saw her. She told him she was in trouble and he promised to make inquiries regarding a hospital for her. He was to meet her at Vernersbridge to tell her the results of his inquiries and went there, but apparently did not see her. He then wrote to her asking her to meet him. He hired a car to keep the engagement, but on the Tuesday night he decided to have nothing more to do with the affair and wrote her to that effect, posting the letter at Aughnacloy.

DEATH SENTENCE

The jury finally disagreed and Courtney was sent forward to the Armagh Spring Assizes. There, practically the same evidence was tendered, but the defence brought in strengthened evidence that the wound had been suicidal. The trial again lasted five days and the jury returned a verdict of guilty, but recommended the prisoner to mercy. Before passing the death sentence the Lord Chief Justice (Sir William Moore) said he cordially approved of the verdict, but profoundly disagreed with the recommendation to mercy. "I think it was a cold-blooded, calculated and callous murder," he said. "I think you betrayed this girl, and under the stress of her claims upon you, you butchered her and her unborn child."

With passive countenance Courtney heard sentence of death passed upon him. Asked by the judge if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed, Courtney, in firm, ringing tones declared: "I am not guilty, my Lord. I did not kill Minnie Reid, and I am not guilty."

RUMOURS

Courtney protested his innocence to the end. But was this the end of this convicted killer? Rumours for years afterwards abounded in the Armagh area that Courtney was indeed alive and well in Australia, where he was said to have been seen by several people who took advantage of the £10 Programme.

They must have surely been mistaken, though, because the inquest into his death was carried out at Belfast Prison by the City Coroner, Mr T E Alexander, at 10 o'clock that same morning, two hours after the bolt was pulled. Pierrepoint was the reported executioner. Witnesses to the execution were: the prison medical officer, Dr O'Flaherty, Captain R W Stevens, the prison governor, and Mr Valentine Wilson, the Under-Sheriff for Co Armagh.

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