§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it was true that John Lee, who in February, 1885, was convicted of the murder of Miss Keyse at Babbicombe, and whose capital sentence was subsequently commuted to penal servitude for life, had been set at liberty?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)No, Sir; there is no ground for the statement. The prisoner John Lee is at the present moment undergoing his sentence of penal servitude in the convict prison at Portsmouth.
§ MR. PICKERSGILLHas the Home Office any information that another man has confessed to the murder under circumstances of peculiar solemnity?
§ MR. MATTHEWSNo, Sir; I have no such information.
§ MR. PICKERSGILLIs the case of John Lee under consideration at present.
§ MR. MATTHEWSNo, Sir; it is not.