August Sangret - Trial and Punishment

Trial and Punishment

Preliminary hearings were held at Guildford on 12, 13, 19 and 20 January 1943. With the committal proceedings complete, Captain Creasey noted in his diary that the case was "medium strong, circumstantial case only."

The judge finished his summary with the words:

“ That the girl (Wolfe) was murdered is not in dispute; that she was murdered by some man is also quite plain; and the only question you have to determine is: Have the Crown satisfied you beyond all real doubt that the prisoner, August Sangret, is the man who murdered her?


I can only conclude by saying what I said at the beginning; when dealing with a case of circumstantial evidence you must be satisfied beyond all doubt before you find the prisoner guilty. If you come to the conclusion that, on the facts as proved to you, no real doubt is left in your minds that his was the hand which slew this unhappy girl, then you will convict him.

 ”

The jury, who took two hours to reach their verdict, made a strong recommendation to mercy. Before sentence of death was passed, Sangret declared, "I am not guilty. I never killed that girl."

Sangret's appeal was heard on 13 April. The appeal was dismissed and the jury's appeal for mercy was not a matter for the courts, but for the Home Secretary. Then Home Secretary Herbert Morrison found the jury's recommendation surprising, even inexplicable. Seeing no good reason to interfere, he let the law take its course. Sangret was held in the condemned cell at Wandsworth Prison where he was hanged on 29 April 1943.

In his memoirs, published in 1960, Edward Greeno made his opinion quite clear:

“ I had interviewed thousands of people in this case and seventy-four of them went into the witness-box. The case was so watertight that, as Sir Norman Kendal said later, Sangret's appeal against the death sentence 'was almost a farce'.

One small doubt remained. Sangret murdered the girl because she was expecting his child—but was she? Was she expecting anybody's child?
The doctors didn't think so on the occasion that the police sent her to hospital, and when her body was found it was too late to tell.
But this is certain: Sangret did murder her. He confessed before he died, and this is where I quarrel with the rules. It is never announced when a murderer confesses. But why not? There are always cranks and crackpots to argue that some wicked policeman has framed some poor fellow. So why make an official secret of the fact that the policeman did his job?

 ”

Private August Sangret, Royal Canadian Infantry Corps, is commemorated on the Brookwood Memorial. His entry can be found on Panel 23, Column 3. Other executed criminals present on the Brookwood Memorial are Ernest James Kemp and Theodore Schurch.

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