between 9:15 and 9:40 a.m. Two of Harold’s friends, Levi Meyrick and Francis Mortimer (Herbert and Rhoda’s son), said that at 10:20 p.m. on February 5, Jones had told them he needed to lock the shed and invited them to accompany him. However, as they reached the shed, Jones insisted on approaching it alone. They walked through the lane and spotted a sack lying on the ground. Harold reportedly went over and kicked the sack. Was Freda’s body inside it at the time? If so, this seems an incredibly brazen and disturbing thing to do. Since he was the last person to see Freda and he had a key to the shed, Harold was arrested and held at Abertillery Police Station until the coroner’s inquiry.
On the day of Freda’s funeral, Brigadier Thomas Cloud, national commander of the Salvation Army, gave a short service outside Freda’s home. Her coffin rested on a bier in the street, bearing a wreath from her parents. Cloud said, “Satan has devoured the man who has done this thing and he has become a demoniac worse than the Gadarene Demoniac.” (The Gadarene Demoniac was an unclean spirit who possessed a man from the Gadarenes; when Jesus approached him and asked the unclean for its name, it answered: “My name is Legion. For we are many.” Jesus exorcised the demon and sent it into a two-thousand-strong herd of swine.)
There were approximately one hundred thousand spectators lining the streets. The procession was one and a half miles long and took a half hour to reach Brynithel Cemetery. Businesses were closed for the day out of respect. The Abertillery Urban District Council decided to make a public collection to pay for Freda’s funeral. Her epitaph read:
Freda, daughter of F & M Burnell, who met her death Feb. 5th 1921, aged 8 ½. She has gone to be with Jesus, there she’ll know no pain. She is waiting for her loved ones to be gathered once again.
As Freda’s funeral cortège went past, Harold was sitting on a wall, then went to play billiards at Preece’s Billiards Hall.
During the inquest on Thursday, February 24, Fred Burnell said that Harold Jones visited him at home between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. the night Freda went missing, to see if she had been found. He returned later in the evening and asked again. Harold had once lived two doors away at number 5 and knew Freda, so Fred assumed Harold was concerned and being neighborly. As Harold was the one who had killed her, his motives for doing this must have been to cause Freda’s father more pain. He knew she wouldn’t be found alive.
A few witnesses at the inquest gave evidence stating that they had heard a child scream on the day Freda died. On February 4 or 5 at 9:30 a.m., Fanny Manuel of 106 Princess Street was in her kitchen, two houses from Mortimer’s shed, where Freda was killed. She couldn’t recall which day she heard the scream. The coroner said, “The next question might appear funny to you, but there is a reason for asking it. Was the scream you heard such as could have been made by a chicken?” (Chickens lived in the storage shed.) Fanny replied, “No sir, I have often heard children’s screams, and this screaming was like it, but it sounded muffled.”
Edith Evans of 10 Duke Street said she was in her back garden at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 5. Her garden led into the lane between Duke Street and Princess Street. She said she heard a child’s scream. She listened hard for a couple of minutes but heard nothing else.
Twenty-three-year-old collier Henry Arthur Duggan of 107 Princess Street said that on February 5 at 9:25 a.m. he was in his backyard, catching one of his chickens and returning it to its pen. He heard a short, loud scream, which ended suddenly as though muffled. He thought it came from Mortimer’s shed, which was at the bottom of his yard. He put his ear to the boarded-up window but heard nothing more. Medical evidence suggested Freda was alive for four hours after her assault. It’s believed Duggan suffered a nervous breakdown shortly after.
Hannah Evans, seventy-two, sold her house and storage shed to Mortimer’s, but continued to live in the house. She said Harold was in the shed every morning between nine and nine-thirty feeding the chickens. Her granddaughter Lilian, who helped her on Saturdays, said she saw Harold Jones leave the shed on Saturday, February 5, at 10:40 a.m., an hour later than usual.
Francis Mortimer often helped Jones with deliveries. They would always wheel a trolley into the shed, load it with feed, then go on deliveries. On the day of Freda’s murder, Francis said that Harold had opened the door, but not very wide, as there was a sack in the way. Harold went into the shed by himself, fetched the potatoes, loaded the trolley, and told Francis to go on ahead without him. This was very unusual, since they always went together. Herbert and Rhoda Mortimer were convinced of Harold’s innocence and said he was in the shop making noise, yet Harold had said he was sitting quietly. Rhoda claimed some of the evidence their son had given wasn’t true. It seems bizarre that she would cover for Harold but tell the police her son was lying.
Freda’s death certificate stated:
“1. That the cause of her death was shock consequent upon (a) rape or attempted rape and injuries to the vulva and hymen (b) injuries to the neck and partial strangulation (c) injuries to the forehead and (d) nervous shock and fright.
“2. And do further say that a person or persons to the jurors unknown did willfully and of malice aforethought murder the said Freda Elsie Maud Burnell.”
Walter Walters, the headmaster of Church School, said that “the teachers who had him [Jones] in their charge and myself never found anything to complain of in regards to him. We all found him exemplary, respectful and of good moral character.”
The inquest opened on March 7. Harold gave evidence, but he seemed agitated and kept giving conflicting accounts. The coroner became annoyed with him and told him to tell the truth. Harold said, “I know it looks black against me, but I never done it.” Despite the lack of physical evidence, police were satisfied they had the killer, and Harold was detained until April 5, when he went before the magistrates. He was formally charged with murder and denied bail, being remanded in Usk Prison until the trial.
On June 21, 1921, the trial began at Monmouthshire Assizes. Harold Jones pleaded not guilty. He was calm and collected on the stand, even through interrogation—a stark contrast to his demeanor during the inquest. Henry Mortimer stated that he’d heard Harold and Francis working in the shop before both of them left to deliver a sack of potatoes to a customer at 10 a.m., then later returned to work for the rest of their shift. Harold’s father, Phillip, said that his son had been at home from the time he finished work until the next morning. This was a different story from what Harold’s friends Levi Meyrick and Francis Mortimer had said. Harold’s mother supported Phillip’s alibi for Harold and said that their son had always displayed good behavior toward young girls. He even had a younger sister, Flossie. Certainly nothing in his upbringing or personality even hinted that he was capable of killing a child.
After five hours, the jury found Harold not guilty.
Harold had a tearful reunion with his parents, after which they went to a restaurant for a celebratory meal. Harold apparently stood on the table and addressed the crowd: “I thank you all. I do not hold a grudge against the people of Abertillery for the ordeal I have been put through.” This seems a rather unusual response to being acquitted of murder. He returned to Abertillery in a charabanc—an open horse-drawn carriage—adorned with bunting and flags, to the cheers of the local townspeople. He was given a hero’s welcome. The people of Abertillery could not believe that a nice boy from their small town would callously murder a little girl. It had to have been an outsider passing through, even though there had been no sightings of a stranger, and the police weren’t looking for anyone else. Harold was presented with a gold pocket watch to celebrate his acquittal. His neighbor, George Little, said to Harold, “Well done, lad. We knew you didn’t do it.” George would later come to regret this when his own daughter, Florence, was murdered seventeen days later.
On July 8, Harold saw his little sister, Flossie, playing hopscotch with one of their neighbors, eleven-year-old Florence Little.
