The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-10-03 00:00:00

&.

THE CASE OF MADAME RACHEL.

The trial of this notorious person lasted five days, and the
result of it was that she was found Got it,y, and sentenced to
ve years' penal servitude.
The .ttsdge. in passing sentence, said that by the verdict of
the jury she had been found guilty of having obtained from
Mrs. Borrodaile, by false pretences, very large SWIM of
money. the jury had not believed the theory and story that
tool been put forward by the prosecutitoio, lout had come to
their conclusion front the evidence laid before them that Mrs
Borrodaile had in lone given her large aunts of money in the
belief that she would arrange a marriage with LOrd Itanelagh.
Not only had she received money to the extent of several
thousands of pounds, but jewellery, plate, lace, and goods of
various kinds that had been bonght for the marriage, lout hiatt
found their way into her custody, moil had been by her
disposed of. Ile did not recollect an instance where the
serious crime of obtaining goods stutter false pretences had
presented more aggravating circumstances. A hmlisb
misguidml wonlaa had trusted herself into the prisoner's
hands. and had been plundered if all she had, and had nothing
left her but the pension which her husband had earned. The
rest of her property, to a large amount, it was to be feared.
had irretrievably gone Nothing could be more merciless than
the conduct of the prisoner. After robbing Mrs Horrodaile
of her money and of the goods which she hail been induced
ho purchase, the prisoner had her remorselessly thrown
into jail. No case c.mhl be more aggravated, either as
regarded the length if time that the system of plunder
had gone on, the means by which it had been effected, or
the results which had been obtained. Mrs. Borriodaile
hail been, through the treatment she had received at the
prisoner's hands, not only reduced almost to pauperism,
lout had hound herself exposed to the public gaze—he
would not say an object of public contempt, but cer-
tainly of public pity—while her position in society
had been to some extent destroyed. What had loemo
called the hood street mystery was really no mystery
at all. All the mystery had been dispelled by the Verdict of
the jury. It was a painful feature in the ease, that the
daughter of Mrs. Borrodaile, who was entitled to have looked
forward to some fortune, hail, loy the practices of the pri-
soner, become entirely dependent on her relatives. Every
shilling which ought to have genet° that young lady had lwen
clutched Soy the prisoner. The attempt to make out a claim
of 1:00 against Mrs. horrodaile the jury had very properly
considered to be part of the prisoner's scheme of fraud,
and utterly untrue. What was still worse, having obtained
these large sums of money by false represmdations and it
concocted noisome, she bad tried Pi Mast Mrs. Borrodaile's
character by declaring that she had been spending her
fortune upon a pararoultr. That assertion front first to last
had been negatived by the verdict of the jury. Having
regard to all the circumstances of the case, and believing
that he should not be worthy of the place he occnpied if he
did not do his duty to society by making her all example,
he must sentence her to be kept in penal servitude for live
years.
The prisoner attempted then to address something, to the
Court, but was promptly checked lov the warders, and
removed front the dock.

Further particulars say that the prisoner was very touch
affected at the result of the trial, and that she fully expected
to receive an acquittal, and had not the slightest expectation
that so severe a sentence would he passed upon her. It has
transpired since her conviction that in the year 1854 she ap-
peared as a witness to prove an alibi tor a well-known
character named Masco, a fighting-man, who was charged
with manslaughter, and she was committed to Newgate by
Lord Chief Baron Pollock, before whom the case was tried,
for perjury, the evidence gives by her in support of the
defence of the alibi being palpably false. There were, how-
ever, difficulties in the way it establishing that charge, and
after the prisoner had been in Newgate :dant three weeks
she was set at liberty. The effect of the sentence passed
upon the prisoner will be that she will, in the first instance,
he reinovml to Millbank, where she will be employed in pick-
ing I mkunk ; and after she has !peen there about nine months
she will be removed to the female convict prison at Brixton.
where she will remain until the termination of her sentence;
but at the expiration of three years she will be entitled,
under the present arrangements with reference to convicts,
to a ticket-of-leave. It any, perhaps, be unwell to state that
prisoners who are of the Jewish religion are sot compelled to
work on their Sabbath, but in some prisons they are required
to perform some sort of labour upon the Christian Sabbath.
Ills said that the total expense of the two trials will be more
than .t 2,000.