The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-08-29 00:00:00

kTrrTMAT ALTO 21, isna

AN EXTRAORDINAIbi

At the Central Criminal Court, in London, Annie
Porter, a respectable-looking young woman, surren-
dered to take her trial upon an indictment for mis-
demeanour in having committed wilful and corrupt
perjury in the Divorce Court.
The facts of the case were of a very peculiar charac-
ter. The prosecutor, Mr. William Bewicke, was a
gentleman of position, and formerly a magistrate for
Northumberland, and resided at Threepwood Mall in
that county. It appeared that he had been twice
married, the first time in the year ltelfi, and his wife
died in 1858, and in Isfil he married again, but it
seemed that the second marriage was a very unhappy
one, and in the year 1866 the prosecutor and his wife
agreed to separate, and he took her to her friends in
London. A short time afterwards the wife appeared
to have instituted proceedings in the Divorce Court to
obtain a judicial separation on the ground of cruelty,
but that suit was abandoned and a fresh one instituted
bv the wife to obtain a divorce on the ground of
'adultery. This cause came on to be tried in June last,
and the present defendant was examined as a witness,
and she swore that in the month of Februarythe prose-
cutor had gone into the bedroom of a person named
Mary Latham, who occupied the position of house-
keeper in the establishment, that he had also carried
her out of her bedroom down stairs to the drawings
r.spm, and also that upon a particular day she had seen
him commit an act of adultery with this Mary Latham;
and these were the three allegations of perjury etisni
which the present indictment was founded. It ap-
peared that the Judge t fillinary of the Divorce Court
made a decree of judicial separation between the
parties ; but the prosecutor appealed against that
decision, and preferred the present indictment against
the defendant.

Mr. William Bewicke, the prosecutor, was examin“l
as a witness, and he stated in the most distinct and
unenuiN oral manner that there was no foundation
whatever for the statements that had been made by the
defendant before the Divorce Court with reference to
his conduct to the woman Latham. He also stated
that no act of impropriety ever took place between him
and this woman.

. The prosecutor was subjected to a very severe CCOAR-
examination by Serjeant Sleigh, and some extraordi-
nary statements were made by him. He said he had
bad a great many servants, and discharged them when
they had stayed with him a very short time. The de-
fendant and another young woman were engaged AS
servants by Latham at Liverpool, but he did not like
their appearance the moment he saw them, and they
were only in his house a few days before he discharged
them. Ile had charged his wife with adultery, and
had onnloyed a detective, and in consequence of the
information he received from him he issued a handbill
offering 4:100 reward for evidence against her, and he
sent copies of this handbill to all his friends, but ulti-
mately did not attempt to establish the charge. His
first wife died in the autumn of 1856, and at this time
Mary Latham was living in his house, but she left
shortly afterwards. The prosecutor admitted that he
had been convicted of shooting at some sheriff's officers
who had come to execute process upon him; but it
appeared that he subsequently indicted the parties for
perjury, and they were convicted, and after he had
been in confinement twelve months he received a free
pardon, and the House of Commons awarded him
t:1,200 Its compensation. He said that the reason he
accuses! his wife of adultery was that she told him when
they looted that as he chose to leave her she should
study her own inclinations. One of his childrm died,
but for reasons of his own he declines! to follow it to
the grave. The woman, Mary Latham, was about
forty years of age, aml he had dined with her at the
Hall, and had walked out with her, but lie declared
that nothing ever took place between them. They
were friendly, and be used sometimes to call her
"poodle." (Laughter.) The reason he did so was
because he thought she was like a poodle. (Roars of
laughter.) . _

,
There was a great deal more to the same effect, and
in the course of the cross-examination the prosecutor
admitted that he had two illegitimate grown up
children.

Mary Latham was called, and she declared most
positively that nothing improper had ever occurred be-
tween her and Mr. Rewicke.
. .

Mr. Serjeant :;.4ei;,47l—airesseil the jury for the
defence, aml after a .reply from Mr. Serjeant Tindal
Atkinson, an immediate verdict of "Not Guilty " was
returned.