§ MR. THOMASSON (Leicester)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the case of Albert Bach who, at the Middlesex Sessions on January 9th, 1904, was sentenced to seven years penal servitude for receiving goods, valued at £3 15s., knowing them to have been stolen; whether there was any other evidence of this guilty knowledge than Bach's neglect to record the purchase; whether he is aware that the police gave evidence that Bach was friendly with one Lionel Green, a convicted receiver of stolen goods, and that Bach contented and evidence was given in support of the contention that this evidence of the police was due to confusion between Lionel Green and a Mrs. Green totally unconnected with him, who lived in the same street and was an acquaintance of Bach; whether, seeing that the clerk of the peace wrote to Mrs. Bach that the chairman regretted that having carefully inquired into the whole matter and considered the evidence adduced before him, and further information he had received, he was unable to concur in any application being made to the Secretary of State for any remission of sentence, will he say if the further information thus referred to has ever been communicated to the prisoner or his legal advisors so that he might have an opportunity of rebutting it; and whether, seeing that Bach had never before been convicted of any breach of the Law, he will take steps to reduce the sentence of 1111 seven years penal servitude passed upon this man for his first offence.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The case of Albert Bach has repeatedly been under the consideration of my predecessor and myself, and, after giving very careful attention to it, I regret that I can find no grounds for interference. I regret also that it is not possible to discuss by way of Question and Answer either the details of the evidence on which the jury arrived at their verdict or any information which the chairman may have obtained for the purpose of replying to applications from the prisoner's friends.