George Stephen Penny (Insane)

George Stephen Penny was found guilty but insane for the murder of his 3-year-old child, Joan Penny.

He threw her off a balcony at his flat at 87 Leith Mansions, Grantully Road, Maida Vale on the morning of 7 April 1923. She died on 26 April 1923.

The balcony had been 36½ft from the ground.

He had also initially been charged with attempting to murder his wife as well as attempting to commit suicide.

George Penny had an MA from Cambridge and had been the headmaster of the Marylebone Grammar School, formerly the Philological School, in Marylebone Road since January 1920, having previously served abroad in the RAF.

A neighbour said that on 7 April 1923, they saw George Penny struggling with his wife on the balcony of their flat. She said that George Penny had apparently been trying to throw her to the ground, however, she said she screamed and he released her.

Later, another neighbour saw George Penny and Joan Penny falling from the balcony.

Joan Penny was taken to hospital where she was found to be suffering from a broken hip. She later died from shock and collapse.

George Penny was found to have escaped with a few bruises.

When George Penny was later examined, a letter was found in his pocket which read:

Evidence was heard that George Penny and his wife had lived happily together and that he had been particularly devoted to Joan Penny, however, since the war he had been subject to bad attacks of maleria.

The acting headmaster at Marylebone Grammer School said that he had been senior assistant master under George Penny, who was made headmaster in 1919. He said that he had been an excellent master, a magnificent organiser and very popular everywhere. However, he noted that since the war he had been subject to bad attacks of malaria and that they were always at their worst in the months of March and April.

A doctor that examined him said that he didn't behave abnormally in hospital and had no delusions.

At the trial, George Penny said that his father and mother were second cousins and that his father had been peculiar at times and that his mother had twice attempted suicide. He said that one of his paternal aunts had died of brain disease and another had died in a nursing home for mental cases.

He said that he had been educated at a public school and at Cambridge he had taken a first in Classical Tripos.

He also stated that since 1915 he had been in the hands of money lenders.

He said the in 1919 he obtained the position of headmaster of Marylebone Grammar School at £500 a year, which increased in April 1923 to £725, subject to a 10% reduction. When he was asked to explain how he was unable to live on that, he said that it was because he was paying an exorbitant rate of interest to moneylenders.

He said that the idea of suicide first came to him in October 1922, and that two days before the tragedy that contemplated taking the lives of his wife and child. He said that he took home from the school laboratory two bottles of cyanide of potassium. He said that he had also contemplated turning on the gas stoves in the bedroom.

He said that then, on the morning of 7 April 1923 he felt he had come to the end of his tether and as though his head were going to burst and that he remembered something saying to him:

He said that he then got hold of his wife and a haze came over him which made everything seem purple. He said that he remembered nothing else and had no recollection of the child or of falling from the balcony.

He added that the refusal of his relatives to help drove him almost crazy.

When the judge asked him whether, when the thought of killing his wife and child came to him that what he was contemplating was wrong, he replied, 'Yes'.

When he was asked whether he knew he would be punished if he lived and the died, he said:

A medical officer at Brixton Prison said that he was of the opinion that George Penny had been suffering from confusional insanity at the time of the act.

George Penny was tried at the Old Bailey on 6 June 1923 and found guilty but insane and ordered to be detained until his Majesty's pleasure be known.