§ 20. Mr. HOHLERasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether in the ease of William Beal, a boy of nineteen, who was convicted at the Central Criminal Court, on the 11th November last, of the murder of his sweetheart, Clara Carter, and who was strongly recommended to mercy by the jury, he is prepared to advise the respite of the prisoner in view of his youth, and the fact that two of the principal witnesses for the prosecution contradicted at the trial the evidence they gave at the coroner's inquest, and that the medical evidence showed that the prisoner's story that the girl committed suicide was not impossible?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe evidence referred to by the hon. Member was fully before the jury at the trial and the points raised in the question were specifically dealt with by the Court of Criminal Appeal. 23 Neither tribunal appears to have had any doubt as to the prisoner's guilt, and I regret that I have been unable to find sufficient grounds to justify me in advising interference with the sentence.
§ Mr. NORMAN CRAIGIs there any modern precedent for a case in which the extreme youth of the convicted prisoner and a strong recommendation to mercy by the jury have been ignored and the execution of the sentence has been carried out?
§ Mr. McKENNAOh, yes, Sir, there are several cases in which convicted prisoners have been executed in circumstances not very dissimilar from this present case.
§ Mr. NORMAN CRAIGIs there any such instance as that of a youth of nineteen, with a strong recommendation to mercy?
§ Mr. McKENNAYes, Sir, there was a quite similar case in the last two or three years.
§ Mr. NORMAN CRAIGWill the right hon. Gentleman indicate it?
§ Mr. McKENNAIf the hon. Gentleman will give me notice.