§ SIR THOMAS DEWAR (Tower Hamlets, St. George's)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has yet considered the amount of compensation to be granted to Mr. Horace Forbes, who, in the month of April last, was arrested, convicted of fraud, and sentenced to eighteen months hard labour, but eventually proved to be innocent and released from gaol; is he able to state whether this conviction was due to any act of carelessness or neglect; will he state how many cases of miscarriage of justice have come under his notice during the last two years; and whether any special efforts are being made to protect the public against such risks.
58 (Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) The defendant mentioned by the hon. Member was convicted last month at the North London Sessions on a charge of obtaining money by false pretences, and sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment with hard labour. In consequence of information given by the prisoner after his conviction inquiries were made by the police, and the result of these inquiries was to raise sufficient doubt regarding the propriety of the conviction to justify me in recommending the remission of the remainder of the sentence. I cannot, however, regard the case as one where a free pardon should be granted, or any compensation given from public funds. I am satisfied that there was no carelessness or neglect on the part of the police or the prosecution; and that all the evidence favourable to the prisoner which was then known to the police was brought clearly before the jury. When compared with the total number of convictions, the number of wrong or doubtful convictions which have come to my notice has been extremely small. The number of persons convicted of indictable offences is about 48,000 a year; and during the past two years I have seen my way to advising the grant of a free pardon in four cases, while in about fifteen cases I have felt so much doubt as to the propriety of the conviction that I have advised the remission of the remainder of the sentence. In some of these cases the juries were apparently led to convict because the prisoners' own witnesses informed them of the previous convictions of the prisoners. Every possible precaution is taken by the Metropolitan Police to preclude mistakes in identification; and I am communicating with the local police authorities-elsewhere with a view to making sure that similar precautions are taken in all parts of the country.