Albert Edward Matheson

Case record: Albert Edward Matheson

Background

Albert Edward Matheson was employed as a handyman at a hall in Newcastle, where the mutilated body of a boy was found.

The boy was Gordon Lockhart, aged 15. His mutilated body was found in a sump under the boxing ring of the hall in Newcastle.

Matheson had formed an unnatural association with Gordon Lockhart. He was described as a sexual pervert.

The offence

On January 30, Matheson was found guilty of the capital murder of Gordon Lockhart, aged 15.

The charge was capital murder on the basis that it was committed in furtherance of theft.

Matheson told the police that he had taken £35 in a registered envelope out of the boy's pocket and that was why he had killed him.

Investigation

The police were told by Matheson that he had taken £35 in a registered envelope from the boy’s pocket and that it was why he had killed him.

Trial

Matheson was tried after being charged with capital murder.

Defence

The defence argued that although Matheson was not insane in the normal sense—he knew right from wrong—he suffered from abnormality of mind such as to diminish his responsibility for what he had done. The defence therefore argued that he ought to have been convicted of manslaughter rather than murder.

The central question was whether Matheson’s mentality was so abnormal, due to arrested or retarded development or disease, that he was not mentally responsible for what he had done.

Medical evidence

Dr. Ian Pickering, senior medical officer of Durham Prison, gave evidence that Matheson was diagnosed as a psychopathic personality in 1943. Dr. Pickering also gave evidence that between 1935 and 1943 Matheson had been much given to self-injury, and that he had been a voluntary patient in a mental hospital in September, 1957.

Dr. Pickering testified that Matheson’s mental age was less than that of a boy of 10. In Dr. Pickering’s view, Matheson’s mental abnormality was at the time of the act to an extent which substantially interfered with his responsibility, and that his idea of right and wrong was very elementary.

Dr. Robert Orton, consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, agreed with Dr. Pickering’s view.

Dr. Thomas Cuthbert, consultant psychiatrist to the Newcastle Hospitals Board, added that Matheson had no feeling of remorse or of having done wrong, and that the question of right or wrong hardly ever entered his mind.

Judge’s direction

In summing up, the judge, after dealing with the background of the case, directed the jury that if they were satisfied that Matheson was suffering from abnormality of the mind which substantially impaired his mental responsibility, the only verdict open to them was manslaughter.

The judge stated that sexual perversion was not an abnormality of the mind, but an abnormality of morals.

Verdict

After an absence of 65 minutes, the jury returned a verdict of capital murder.

Sentencing

Following the verdict of capital murder, the judge sentenced Matheson to death.

Appeals

The diminished responsibility defence was linked with a Manchester Guardian report dated January 31, 1958, in which the outcome of the case was described as diminished responsibility.

Outcome

Matheson’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Aftermath

The commutation to life imprisonment was associated with the diminished responsability defence in the Manchester Guardian report dated January 31, 1958.