87:, to stay with Thorne for a planned visit. He later claimed he had not seen her. He sent a note to her on 7 December asking why she had not come. The police began an investigation, and witnesses reported they had seen Cameron in Crowborough and on Thorne's farm on 5 December. After further investigations, the police arrested Thorne on 14 January 1925. The farm was searched and the police dug in the grounds. Items belonging to Cameron, including an overnight bag, were found.
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1922. It became apparent that
Cameron had psychological problems and Thorne, who had started seeing another woman, no longer wanted to marry her, although he did not have the courage to tell her. Cameron and her family, who wanted her off their hands, pressured Thorne to set a wedding date. To try to
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On 15 January Thorne gave a statement to the police admitting that he had dismembered the body, and he told them where it was buried. He claimed that
Cameron had committed suicide by hanging herself from a beam in the hut where he lived. An examination of the beam showed no marks consistent with his
146:, series 3, episode 3, broadcast in 2019, re-examined the evidence with two barristers and a judge. The judge declared his belief that the conviction was safe, and that Thorne did indeed murder Cameron.
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that Thorne had killed, or meant to kill, Cameron. An appeal was lodged in March 1925, but it was dismissed the following month. Thorne was hanged on 22 April 1925 in
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story. The police found newspaper cuttings in Thorne's hut about a murder that had occurred on 15 April 1924 on a Sussex beach; one of the so-called
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The case received considerable press coverage. Many people, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, thought that the trial had not proved
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Forty Years of
Scotland Yard: A Record of Lifetime's Service in the Criminal Investigation Department
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speed up the wedding, Cameron claimed she was pregnant, although she and Thorne had never had sex.
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testified that she had been beaten to death. Thorne was found guilty of murder on 16 March 1925.
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teacher and chicken farmer who was convicted and hanged for what became known as the
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The Trial of Norman Thorne: the
Crowborough chicken farm murder
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192:(pp. 288–291). Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing.
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On Friday 5 December 1924, Cameron travelled from London to
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in London on what would have been
Cameron's 27th birthday.
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325:People executed by the United Kingdom by hanging
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278:(KentLive website). Retrieved 4 January 2017
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186:Wensley, Frederick Porter
131:'beyond reasonable doubt'
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176:A Martyr to Spilsburyism
112:Sir Henry Curtis Bennett
106:on 11 March 1925 before
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236:The chicken run murder
49:Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
174:Rose, Andrew (2009),
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188:(2005),
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100:Assizes
59:History
24:English
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39:Sussex
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208:ISBN
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