HC Deb 20 February 1885 vol 294 cc911-2
MR. SEXTON

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, having regard to the doubt cast by Members of the Government on the innocence of Bryan Kilmartin, of Arran Island, whose sentence of penal servitude for life was recently cancelled by the Lord Lieutenant, the Government will lay upon the Table the Report of Mr. R. P. Carton, Q.C., upon consideration of which by the Irish Executive Kilmartin was set free?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

The Report in question is essentially of a confidential nature, and the Government must decline to lay it on the Table. I should add that Kilmartin's sentence was not cancelled. He was simply released from custody.

MR. SEXTON

I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether this man having been sent to penal servitude and released in the third year of his imprisonment, and the Government in an official manner having cast doubts on his innocence, they will still allow that stigma to rest on him while they withhold the evidence upon which he was released?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

That, of course, is an argumentative Question, which could not be answered by the production of the Report.

MR. SEXTON

Well, then, in order to argue the question, I shall move for the production of this Report.