§ MR. ROWLANDS (Kent, Dartford)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether a petition was presented to him in August 1907 praying that a free pardon be granted to William and Frederick Faulkner, who were convicted of sheep stealing, at the Warwickshire summer assizes, 1905, and sentenced to four months imprisonment, the petition being based on the fact that James William Bradwick has since confessed that he committed the crime; and whether, having regard to these circumstances, he can now see his way to recommend that these innocent men receive a free pardon.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I received the petition referred to and a statement in writing from the man Brandrick (not Bradwick); but, after careful consideration of all the facts, I found, and can still find, no sufficient ground for the grant of a pardon to the Faulkners. I may add that it clearly appeared at the trial of the Faulkners that a third man, not in custody, was concerned in the sheep stealing.