§ MR. P. A. TAYLORasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the following report of a case brought before the magistrates at Pershore:—
Three women, named Mary Cook, Ann Cook, and Sarah Ann Clifford, were charged with stealing a quantity of faggot-wood from the road-side, value 4d., the property of Mr. George Whittaker, one of the magistrates on the Bench. Mr. Whittaker said he did not wish for a severe penalty in the case of the two Cooks; but as Clifford had used abusive language to one of his witnesses, he should press for a conviction. The Bench dismissed the Cooks on payment of costs 5s. each, but sentenced Mrs. Clifford, who had a baby at her breast, to seven days' imprisonment. The poor woman cried and sobbed in a piteous manner, and begged the magistrates, for the sake of the baby she had in her arms, as well as several little children she had at home, not to send her to prison. The magistrates, however, were inexorable, and it required the united efforts of three policemen to literally drag the prisoner from the Court to the cells below:whether he has caused inquiry to be made as to the accuracy of the statement; and, if he will be good enough to state what course he proposes to take under the circumstances?
MR. BRUCESir, I have made inquiries into this case, and my hon. Friend will be gratified to hear that it is not so bad as might be inferred from his Question. The facts are these—three women were charged with stealing a quantity of faggot-wood from the road-side, the property of Mr. Whittaker, one of the magistrates in the neighbourhood. It appears that wood had been repeatedly stolen from that place, and that, in consequence, the farm bailiffs of Mr. Whittaker were set to watch it. The three women were caught taking the wood, and by an expression let drop by one of them—Clifford—it appeared that she had been there the previous night for the same purpose. They were summoned before the magistrates; but Mr. Whittaker was not on the Bench when the case was heard. The charge was proved; but Mr. Whittaker said that he did not wish to press the charge against two of the women, who were accordingly dismissed on payment of the costs; but as to Clifford, who had been proved guilty on her own statement of having committed the same offence the previous night, her conduct was so violent and abusive that Mr. 1766 Whittaker declined to interfere in her favour, and left the case to be dealt with by the magistrates. She pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment. With regard to the other points of the Question, the facts are these—the woman is living with a man who is not her husband, and she has three children by him. She did appear in Court with the youngest child in her arms; but I am informed that the child had previously been sent out to nurse, and was brought into Court on that occasion for the purpose of exciting commiseration. The fact of the appearance of the child did not, however, produce on the magistrates the same effect as, in a far more important case, it recently had on a British jury. I am further informed that the prisoner did not cry or sob; but that she screamed out that she would not go to gaol as the witnesses had committed perjury — a statement hardly consistent with the fact that she had herself pleaded guilty. At first she refused to go to the cells, but ultimately she went without any violence being used, and on leaving the Court she repeated against the policeman the same violent language that she had used towards the witnesses. Under these circumstances, it is not my intention to take any further action in the matter.