§ 40. Mr. David Adamsasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that the acting editor and printer of the "African Standard" newspaper of Sierra Leone, Messrs. Thomas and Willoughby, were recently sentenced to one year's imprisonment each upon a charge of criminal libel, instituted by the Superintendent of Prisons, for publishing authenticated reports of irregularities in the prison; and why the trials were by assessors, which method was denounced by Justice Webber, one-time Chief Justice of the Colony, and not by normal procedure?
§ Colonel StanleyMr. Thomas, proprietor and editor of the "African Standard," was sentenced in June, 1942, to one year's imprisonment for publication of a defamatory libel in the "African Standard" concerning the Superintendent of Prisons, Sierra Leone. Mr. Willoughby, 493 printer of the same newspaper, was sentenced on the same grounds at the same trial to a fine of £5 or one month's imprisonment. The trial was held in the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone. As the Attorney-General was satisfied that a fair and impartial trial by jury was unlikely in such a case, he applied to the Court under the provisions of the Sierra Leone Jurors' and Assessors' Ordinance for an order that the case should be tried by the Court with the aid of assessors instead of by a judge with jury. The Court, as required by the Ordinance, ordered accordingly.
§ Colonel StanleyIt is not a novel form of procedure. The Ordinance has been in existence for some time. There are occasions when it is clear that a fair trial could not otherwise be obtained.