The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-09-26 00:00:00

THE CASE OF JAMES BELL.

It will be remembered by our readers that on the
28th of March last a young man named James Bell
was convicted at the Middlesex Sessions, and sentenced
to five years' penal servitude for sheep stealing. The
evidence given lal that occasion was to the effect that
the prisonerwau a cattle drover, in the service of a Mr.
Goodge, who was employed by Messrs. Elmore and
Co., meat salesmen, in London, to drive 58 lambs to
their slaughter-houses on the 27th of February. On
their arrival Bell suggested to his master that the
lambs should be counted, adding, "lest some should be
taken away in the night." They were accordingly
counted, and on the following morning twelve had been
stolen. It was afterwards stated by three policemen
that they saw the prisoner driving some lambs from
the direction of the yard to the Islington market at
six o'clock the same morning, and he was given into
custody. At the station-house he asked a boy to tell
his mother that he was " nicked " for the sheep. At
the trial his father, mother, and brother-in-law were
called, and stated that the prisoner was in bed at the
time he was sworn to have been driving the sheep.
The jury disbelieved the alibi, and the prisoner was
sentenced to five years' penal servitude by the
Assistant-Judge (Sir William Bodkin).
Immediately after the sentence, Mr. Guerrier, a
salesman, believing there had been a miscarriage of
justice, interested himself in the case, and spared no
I endeavours to get at the truth. Through his exertions
and those of the relatives of the prisoner Bell, they
learnt that he was perfectly innocent of the charge,
and that the real culprits were Thomas Daley and
Edwin Winder, who had since been convicted of sheep-
stealing, and Frederick Winder, the brother of the
last-named On the 28th of August last Frederick
Winder was charged at the Middlesex S'essioas with
stealing thirty-nine sheep belonging to Henry Cook.
The convicts Daley and Edwin Winder were then
made witnesses against him, and they proved con-
clusively that they were the real thieves, and that Bell
had nothing whatever to do with the robbery. The
mistake had arisen through Bell being very like Daley,
and through the witnesses for the alibi prevaricating in
some essential particulars. Bell was at once liberated
after having served six months' imprisonment, and
Messrs. Elmore, the prosecutors, took him into their
service. The judge sentenced Winder to fourteen
years' penal servitude, it being proved by Inspector
Thomson that he had been a sheep-stealer for years.
Mr. Guerrier, the salesman, had been put to great
expense in securing Bell's liberation, and Mr. Alder-
man Lusk, M.P., had applied to the Home Secretary
to reimburse those expenses, and he has now received
a letter from Mr. Adolphus Liddell, stating that Mr.
Secretary Hardy was prepared to recommend the
Lords of the Treasury to repay Mr. Guerrier whatever
reasonable and proper expenses he may have incurred
in connection with this case, and desiting him to fur-
nish, with that view, a detailed account of the money
so expended to the Secretary of the Treasury.