Charles Frederick Barrett, a veteran of the Boer War, lived at 11 Belmont Road, Portswood, Southampton. The house had no fewer than eight rooms and Barrett occupied the front rooms on both the ground floor and the first floor. Other rooms had been let out to lodgers. Thus, John Gerrard Finn had a central room at the back on the first floor and the middle room downstairs. There was one other adult living at 11 Belmont Road, the housekeeper, Mrs Mary Tatum, who had moved in with her husband and baby daughter, three weeks before Christmas 1958. Since that time, Mr and Mrs Tatum had argued and, as a result, he had moved out in early January 1959, leaving Mary alone with her child.
John Finn worked nights and on the evening of Thursday, 15 January, he left for work at 7.00pm. He returned to Belmont Road at around 7.30am the following morning and entered the house through the back door, something he did as a matter of course. He could see immediately that something was wrong.
The conservatory door and window were open. Barrett was a creature of habit and always locked up the house at around 10.00pm each night, even turning off the water supply. For security purposes, the most he would ever leave unlocked was a small ventilation window.
As Finn walked further into the house he heard what he thought were snoring noises, coming from the direction of the hallway. Having first turned the water back on, Finn walked down the hallway and noticed that the door to the middle room, his own living room, was open.
Going upstairs to investigate further, Finn saw that Barrett’s bedroom door was wide open and his light was on. Finn entered the room and saw, to his horror, a large round patch of blood in the centre of Barrett’s pillow on the bed. As for Charles Barrett himself, he lay on the floor at the foot of the bed with his head towards the bed. He had a terrible gash on his forehead, was covered in blood and made horrible choking and snoring noises. Barrett was still alive and Finn now had to summon help urgently. He dashed to Mrs Tatum’s room and told her what he had found before running to the nearest public telephone box and calling for the police and an ambulance.