§ MR. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the miscarriage of justice in the case of John Joyce, New Butler Street, Oldham Road, Manchester, who underwent two months' imprisonment with hard labour for the alleged theft of some clothes, although a man who was convicted of the same offence at the same time admitted his own guilt, and stated that Joyce had had nothing to do with it; whether he is aware that Joyce's wife and three children suffered distress and his home was broken up during his incarceration; and whether, seeing that he 88 has received a free pardon, but has been awarded only £25 from the Treasury as compensation for his physical and mental suffering endured, he can make further compensation to him.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe case is well known to the Home Office, and the facts are accurately stated in the first part of the question; but I must add that the prisoner did not petition the Secretary of State during his sentence, and that the first my predecessor heard of the case was in an application, made some months after his release. The facts were then investigated, a free pardon was granted, and, as the case appeared to be one of considerable hardship, the Treasury agreed to grant a compassionate gratuity of £25. As Joyce was earning only about 14s. a week at the time of his conviction, and as neither Treasury nor Home Office was in any way concerned in the case, I do not think I should be justified in asking the Treasury to increase the grant.