§ MR. MACPHERSON (Preston)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been directed to the case of Patrick Callighan, of Preston, who was sentenced 1536 to death for murder, was afterwards reprieved and is still in prison; whether he is aware that, owing to poverty, the witnesses for the defence were not all present at the trial, and that Martha Whiteside, the principal witness against the prisoner, went to the police, but that Detective-Inspector Simpson refused to hear what she had to say; that Martha Whiteside disappeared; that the prisoner's brother communicated these facts to the Home Department; that finally Police-Inspector Walmsley, who had charge of the case, disappeared; and whether he will institute an inquiry by his Department, or cause a public inquiry into this matter, without delay.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE,) Leeds, W.This case has received repeated and most careful consideration, and inquiry has been made with regard to the recent statements by the prisoner's brother. I find that the prosecution arranged to pay the expenses of the witnesses whom the accused wished to call at his trial, and he furnished a list of eight witnesses, who were warned to appear and told that their expenses would be paid, but the defending counsel in the exercise of his discretion decided in the prisoner's interest to call only-some of them. It is not the fact that Martha Whiteside went to the police, and that they refused to hear what she had to say, or that she has disappeared. I am informed that Inspector Walmsley has left the district for reasons which, have nothing to do with the present case. I can find no reason to doubt that the prisoner was rightly convicted of the murder.