Hugh Rutherford Shortland

  General Notes:

Extract from New Zealand Herald 2 June 1884:

THE MURDER BY HUGH SHORTLAND.

. A SENSATIONAL CASE. THE VICTIM A LADY OF POSITION. A cable dispatch to the New York World from London, under date May 7th, is to the following effect:-A terrible tragedy is reported to-day, from Devonshire. Hugh Shortland, a rich barrister from Australia, has been spending the past few months in that.county, enjoying a vacation. He made the acquaintance of a Miss Dimes, the daughter of a wealthy country gentleman, and connected with some of the most aristocratic families, and proposed marriage to her. (Mr William) Dimes, however, objected to Shortland's attentions, having heard some disreputable stories about the barrister's habits, which Dimes had been convinced were too much those of a dissipated and profligate man. Shortland, being clever in address and skilled in intrigue, managed to induce Dimes to postpone his final decision until he could be convinced that his impressions were erroneous, and thus maintained his entree at the residence. Taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by his probation, the Australian pressed his suit with the young lady, and finally induced her to elope with him, and they were duly married. Soon after the elopement the young lady's dead body was found in a pond on her father's estate. The head was battered in in a way that might have been caused by a violent suicidal plunge into the pond, or by a single heavy blow with a blunt, broad instrument in the hands of another person. About the time the body was discovered, Shortland, it was reported, left Devonshire, having told several persons before the discovery that; his professional engagements made it necessary for him to return at once to Australia. It was generally supposed Mrs. Shortland had become morbid by brooding over her estrangement from her father, and the long prospective absence of her husband after so brief an experience in married life, and had committed suicide in a state of despondency. This view was confirmed by" a letter received from Shortland soon after the finding of the body. It was dated Brindisi, Italy, where European voyagers take the Oriental Navigation Company's steamers for Levant, the Suez Canal, and Australia. The letter was full of loving messages to Mrs. Shortland, and stated that the writer had had a successful voyage thus far and was about to embark from Brindisi for Australia.

This letter completely lulled all suspicion which might be entertained, and the coroner's jury found a verdict of Mrs. Shortland's coming to death by suicide. To-day, however, Shortland was recognised at Plymouth, and as it was evident he could not possibly have returned to Australia if he had sailed at the time he had stated in his Brindisi letter, an investigation was begun. It was soon ascertained that he had never left England at all since his marriage and had written the Brindisi letter at Plymouth and sent it under cover to a friend at Brindisi, having it remailed there in order to cover his tracks.

Shortland was promptly arrested and taken back to Devonshire, where the trial, which promises to be one of the most sensational in English criminal records, will be held. All efforts to find a reason for the murder have thus far failed, and Shortland refuses to make any utterance upon the subject.

Extract from North Australian Darwin newspaper Friday 18th July 1884:

A SYDNEY BARRISTER CHARGED WITH MURDER.

At Kingsbridge (Devonshire) on May 7, Mr. Hugh Shortland, barrister, was charged with the wilful murder of his wife, Laura Dimes, and William Ryder with being an accessory to the fact. Mr. Shortland came into the locality a few months ago and made himself known by advocating an opposition branch of railway through the south Hams to that proposed by the people of the neigh- bourhood. He addressed several meetings on the subject. A few weeks since he addressed a final meeting at Kingsbridge, at which he intimated that some friends of his had amalgamated to establish a company to run short lines through the South Hams (Modbury) district, and to purchase large tracts of land in Australia for the production of meat and cereals. He stated that it was his intention to proceed to Australia at once to make arrangements to this end. Some days later the local papers contained an account of a runaway wedding which had taken place at Kingsbridge between Mr. Shortland and Miss Dimes, the daughter of a landowner of the district. On Monday the 28th, Mrs. Shortland went out for a ride, leaving the house at ten o'clock in the morning, and returning soon after noon. Her mother did not see her, but there is no doubt of the fact because it is deposed to by other witnesses. She had changed a riding habit for a walking dress, and went out accompanied by her favourite collie dog which she was fond of taking to a pond for a bathe. She was never again seen alive by any member of the household. Mrs. Dimes ultimately became alarmed, and during the early part of the evening she went down to the pond, thinking that Mr. and Mrs. Shortland might be walking about the grounds, but saw nothing. Next morning, Mrs. Elizabeth Lucraft, wife of Mr. Dime's hind, went in search of the deceased. She seems to have had suspicions that Mrs. Shortland might have fallen accidentally into the pond, and going thither she was horrified to find the body of the unfortunate woman standing erect in the water, about three feet from the wall of the pond, her hands held up in front of her, the water covering her hat by an inch or two. Mrs. Lucraft at once called her husband and a man named Langworthy, who helped to take the body out of the water. The deceased wore a blue walking dress and a hat, and her hands were gloved. The body was examined by Police-sergeant Mills, of Blackawton, and also by Mr. R. W. Soper, surgeon, of Dartmouth, both of whom agree that the deceased's clothing showed no indications of a struggle having taken place. The closest scrutiny of the path around the edge of the pond also failed to detect any traces of a struggle. The only marks of violence on the body were slight scratches on the left temple and on the right tip of nose, and these the surgeon, thought might have been caused by contact with the wall of the pond. Mr. Soper's theory was that the deceased might have fainted when near the edge of the pond and have fallen in when unconscious. He could not say positively that death had been caused hy drowning, the body having been so long in the water, but the appearances were consistent with the theory that the deceased was alive at the time of immersion. An inquest was held, and an open verdict of "Found drowned " returned. The super-intendent of police was called on Wednesday, and said that when the inquest was held two letters were produced, one in the prisoner's hand-writing, stating that he was then at Brindisi on his way to Australia, and that his wife might next expect to hear from him from Sydney, where his father, Dr. Shortland, is in practice. The officer stated that he went that morning to the cottage of a labourer in Modbury, named Ryden, where he found Mr. Shortland. He was remanded for a week It now transpires that Mr. Shortland visited his wife at her parents' house after his marriage, but did not cohabit with her, and it was a matter of common talk in Modbury, that whenever Shortland visited that town, instead of "putting up" at a respectable hotel, he was in the habit of lodging with his fellow-prisoner, a labourer William Ryder, alias " Modbury Bill." who lives in a cottage in a back street, near Messrs. Ashley Brothers' tannery. Shortland was seen going through some fields early on the morning of the day his wife's body was found. It is also known that he wrote the letter dated Brindisi in Ryder's house, and that he sent Ryder's son to Plymouth to post it. Ryder states that after the inquest he showed a report of it which apppeared in the local paper to. Shortland, who said he knew all about it, and was much distressed. Since then he had taken little food, and had been very reserved in manner. Miss Dimes was 22 years of age, and was introduced to Mr. Shortland in Modbury by a mutual friend. On Monday, April 14, letters were received from Shortland dated from Mallett's Hotel, Ivy-bridge. This was the last heard of him by the Dimes family until Tuesday, April 29, the day on which Mrs. Shortland's dead body was discovered, when at the inquest it was stated by the mother of the deceased that a letter had that morning been received, addressed to Mrs. Shortland, couched in affectionate terms, dated Brisbane. Inquiries were made because there was no Brisbane mark upon the envelope. This was accounted for by Mrs. Dimes stating that the letter had reached her from a Plymouth firm of solicitors to whom Mr. Shortland had apparently enclosed it. The case has excited much interest.

Extract from Victoria, University of Wellington, NZ:

In the Supreme Court, Auckland, Hugh Shortland was found guilty of criminal libel. The particulars of the case we have already briefly noted. Judge Conolly passed a sentence of two years, and said that during the whole session there had not been one case that aroused in his mind so much horror as the prisoner's. Not content with publishing the charges against the character of the girl well knowing them to be false, defendant had after a lapse of time repeated these charges and supported them with perjury. It was surprising that while the law allowed hard labor and other additions to punishments for other offences, in the present instance it was not allowed. He was glad that he had never ordered the lash, but it was strange that for such a case the law did not give power to make some addition to the penalty. The prosecutrix's fair fame was absolutely established. The sentence would give defendant time for reflection and repentance, though he had little hope that anything would touch the heart of one who had shown himself to be so utterly destitute of every feeling held by a man of honor.-The sentence is generally approved. The prisoner bears the name of a family honored in the colony, and has dragged it in the mire. He has had a liberal education, belongs to a learned profession, and has the faculty of making himself attractive: but has turned out irreclaimably bad. He was tried in England for the murder of his first wife, whom he had cruelly ill-treated, and who was found drowned under suspicious circumstances. In Auckland he has lived the life of a libertine. He had endeavored to seduce the prosecutrix, and to gain possession of her savings, and not succeeding, deliberately defamed her. Still later, he married a respectable young woman in the country, ignorant of his past career, who now finds herself the wife of a criminal of the most dangerous type.

Hugh married Laura Constantia Dimes, daughter of William Piercy Dimes and Martha Etty, on 8 Apr 1884 in Kingsbridge. (Laura Constantia Dimes was born in 1861 and died on 28 Apr 1884 in Blackawton, Devonshire, England.)