Francis Huchet

Case details

Francis Joseph Huchet was a 32-year-old fitter who lived with his wife at Le Geyt Flats. He was executed by hanging at Newgate Street Prison on October 9, 1959.

Timeline

• 30 March 1959 — John Perrée was killed by a shotgun blast after spending an evening drinking with Huchet.
• 4 April 1959 — Perrée’s body was recovered from a shallow grave on the sand dunes near Mont à la Brune.
• 5 April 1959 — Huchet was taken in for questioning.
• September 1959 — Huchet’s trial began.
• 10 September 1959 — The Deputy Bailiff sentenced Huchet to death.
• 9 October 1959 — Huchet was hanged at Newgate Street Prison.

The offence

John Perrée, a 45-year-old unmarried labourer from St Brelade, Jersey, was killed on the night of 30 March 1959. He had been killed by a shotgun blast after spending an evening drinking with Francis Huchet.

Witness accounts and circumstances described that Perrée was shot in the face by a single blast from a shotgun, with his trousers undone and his left hand in his pocket, while he was relieving himself.

Investigation

Perrée’s body was recovered from a shallow grave on the sand dunes near Mont à la Brune on 4 April 1959. A male corpse with a gunshot wound to the face was uncovered, with a shoe protruding from the grave.

Police evidence included:

• Clothing found near the crime scene, including clothing belonging to both Huchet and his wife.
• Tracks in the sand at the crime scene that pointed to an attempt to free Huchet’s car after it had become bogged down in the dunes.
• The dead man’s glass eye found not far from the improvised grave.
• Nearby items including two pairs of jeans, a woman’s coat, and some bits of rope.
• Indications that the shallow grave had been dug by hand.
• A diary found at the site into which were folded three five-pound notes.
• Evidence that a vehicle had become bogged down and that another had been used to tow it free.

The investigation also established that:

• Perrée had spent the evening drinking with Huchet.
• Perrée had been seen drinking at the Horse & Hound in St Brelade with Huchet.
• Huchet protested innocence, stating that although he had been with Perrée he had last seen him when he dropped him off at the traffic lights at Red Houses after drinking with him at La Pulente Hotel.
• Witnesses disputed Huchet’s account and said they had seen the two men leave the Horse and Hounds at the end of the evening and drive off together in Huchet’s Hillman car.

Further links described:

• Pieces of rope matching those found near the body were discovered in the back of Huchet’s car.
• The woman’s coat found on the dunes belonged to Huchet’s wife.
• The two pairs of jeans were linked to Huchet.
• A double-barrel shotgun, contaminated with sand, was found to have been taken from the home of another of Huchet’s relatives.
• On the night of the murder, a lorry had been “borrowed” from outside the home of a vraic gatherer and returned after it was used to free Huchet’s car from where it had become stuck in the sand.

Arrest and detention

Huchet was taken in for questioning on Sunday 5 April 1959. He remained held in Newgate Street Prison in Saint Helier awaiting trial.

While in jail awaiting trial, Huchet wrote a letter anonymously, blaming two other men. The letter was proved to be from Huchet.

Trial

Huchet was charged with murder and was tried in September 1959.

The trial presided:

• The Deputy Bailiff, Cecil Harrison, presided.
• Advocate J C K H Valpy appeared for the defence.
• Forty-four witnesses were called.
• For the first time in a Jersey murder trial women sat on the 24-strong jury.

A bogus confession came to light during the trial:

• It was written on the torn-out fly-leaf of a prison library book.
• It was smuggled out of Newgate Street Prison.
• The confession purported to be by two men supposedly called Tom and Jim.
• A covering note requested that it “be copied out in ink and forwarded to the police.”
• The prison letter and its covering note were treated as amounting to a signed confession by the prosecution.

Sentencing

On the final day of the trial, 10 September 1959, the jury reached a unanimous guilty verdict. The Deputy Bailiff passed the only sentence then available in Jersey law: death by hanging.

The last executed in the Channel Islands was described as the last convicted criminal to be executed by hanging in the Channel Islands.

Outcome

Francis Joseph Huchet was hanged at Newgate Street Prison on 9 October 1959 at 7.30 am. A crowd of 100 people congregated outside the prison and was policed by three uniformed officers and all of the Town Centeniers, dispersing quietly when it was announced that no notice of execution would be posted.

The execution was carried out by a Home Office hangman and two assistants in the presence of witnesses including:

• the prison governor, F J Moon
• Deputy Keith Baal, president of the Prison Board

An inquest was held at 8.30 am at the General Hospital. The prison medical officer, Dr P G Bentlif, offered the opinion that death had been instantaneous.

Aftermath

Death sentences continued to be passed by the Royal Court until 1986, when capital punishment in the Island was abolished, and all further death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment until 1986. Huchet’s execution was described as the first civil execution in Jersey for over 52 years and only the second execution in Jersey in the 20th century (excepting executions carried out by the German occupying forces in Jersey during the Second World War).