The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-19 00:00:00

INTAROVO EXTORTION.

Iliehard Derma, 58, was indicted foe having unlawfully
obtained from Ana Edwards a sovereign and a half sore.
reign, with intent to chest her thereof.
Mr. Metcalfe appeared for the prisecutien, and in open-
ing the case briefly stated the facts given in the evidence
below, and said that if those facts were proved by unshaken
testimony, there could be no doubt that the prisoner had
been guilty of a (else pretence in the eye of the law.
Ann Edwards, the promeutrix. dem srel that she lived at
No. 17, Montpellier-row, Brompton. On or about the 20th
of June, the prisoner came to her house, and asked for •
lodging. She told hies that she had • room to let, but as
she did not like his looks, she told him that she did not
take in gentlemen lodgers. He then said, "Oh, you only
take in females?" and she replied that that was so. He
then asked what rent the room was, and she named double
the amount she should have asked anybody else, and he
went away, saying she would hear from him on a future
occasion. On the 30th of June he called again, and said
that he was Richard Burnell, agent to the Society fir the
Protection of Women at Westminster, and that ho had an
indictment against her fur keeping a disorderly house.
She told him that she did not keep a house of the hied he
had described, and that her brother, who then happened to
be out of town for a few days, was the tenant. lie
said that made no difference—the was equally a
patty concerned, and, as such, he could turn her
out of her house, get her exposed in the news-
papers, ruin her, and give her two years' imprison-
meat. He had three papers tied up, and he said one was
the indictment, which was headed by Mr. Harness, the
clergyman of the district, and her name, her husband's, and
her brother's were on it. She said she knew there was no-
thing wrong in her house, and that she should go to Mr.
Harness on the subject, when he said she need not do that,
as it would be of no use ; bee neighbours had been there be-
ll= kw. The parochial authorities had taken the matter
Mad they would not listen to a word she had to say—
that he was the principal agent, everything was
duo through him, and that he could either stop the pro-
=l4l:m let them go on. Being alone she did not know
do, and offered him a sovereign if the pro-
m-44w were stopped, with a promise that he should
have more in the mums of the week. lie
said that would do, and she then gave him a
sovereign, which she took from her overdue quarter's
rent. lie said he would call again in the course of the
week. He asked her if she had not women In the house, to
which she replied that she had two young women lodgers,
but they were still and quiet persons, and would not inter-
fere with anybody; that one was a scmpstress and the other
• launder's. He then said it all came under the act for
harbouring women, and he took out a paper, which he said
was the set itself, and be read something to the effect that
she was liable to be punished. It was a written, not a
printed, paper. She was very much frightened, and said
ahe knew nothing about law. Shortly after he went
away, and she was so alarmed that she at once
gave her lodgers notice to quit, and they did
leave as soon as they had got other places to go to. One
had lived with her for nearly three years, the other about
twelve months. They wore still quiet and well conducted
young women, and the had sometimes left them in are of
the house for a fortnight at a time. They were not dis-
orderly at all to her knowledge. Oa the 6th of July he
came again. lie said he had come for what she bad pro-
mised him. She said her lodgers were gone she hating
got rid of them at once after the threat of proceeding., and
she gave him a half sovereign, which she had raised by
pawning her watch. She told him that, and showed him
the duplisate. She took the half sovereign from the mattnsel-
piece and her brother saw her do so from the door. Her
brother had spoken to her before that. The prisoner said
he had not intended nee to turn away my lodges", and
asked as. if I could not get them hack again. She mid,
" I dare say I meld, but you told me that I had a bad
neighbour not far off." He said, " Oh, they cannot do
anything without the society, and I will take care
of that." He then said be would trod her some women
lodgers and if they made any disturbance in
the hose, all she would have to do would be
to send for him to his lodgings, and he would soon put them
all to rights. She declined his ode r, end he went away.
About a fortnight afterwards he called agile, and said,
" Can you do anything far me this morning ?--I am very
short of money." She replied that she was, too. He lookei
routed the room, and said, "Can you not get me some be-
tween this and Saturday 1" She told him she had been to
the pawnbroker's for him oaee, and should not do so vain.
' Oa several aubsequest measions he called and ming for
moan foe other adieus of the society who were watching
the beam as well as himself. She in the meantime had gone
mottos her neighbours, to ascertain if any complaint had
Peen made, and hauling then had not, she determined to
put an end to the system. The prisoner at last became so
intolerable a nuisance, that by the advice of her brother, a
warrant was procured, and he was apprehended. She
parted with the money under feelings of terror, and fully
believing the prieouer's representations to be true.
The prisoner then said he would, with the permission of
the court, ask a few questions. (lie had prepared a bulky
looking brief, and made a great show of an old dirty ragged
piece of parchment, which the proseentrix recognised as the
document he had shown her as the indictment against her
house, but which turned out to tic a copy of an old indict-
ment against somebody else.) He proceeded to cross-es•
mine her, accompanying each question with a running com-
mentary relating to other matter., and when commisd by
the court. he vehemently declared that the charge was got
up by shoat twenty brothel keeper., with whom the prose.
cutris was to league, all of whom were In court, elinlting
over his petition. He informed the jury that the soli( See,
or the prelim instructing the solicitor for the prosecution,
was the individual by whom he was prosecuted in 1840, at
the Oid Henley on a like charge, and declared that lie had
never received one single ecuny from the prosecute's.
The penereetrix declared that the re was not the least
ground for these assertions regarding her ; and as to the
character of her house, all her neighbours were ready to
speak on her behalf.
William Abbey, the pnweentries brother, gave emote,-
rative testimony as It, the giving of the half sovereign.
Mr. Henry Joseph Newman, recretary to the Society for
the Protettien of Women, proved that the prisoner emcee,
was in soy way connected with that rociety, and had never
acted under its authority.
The prisoner, making great flourish of his dirty papers,
then eatered on his defence, addressing the jury in a deeply
indignant tone of voice. Ile said that for eight or ten yams,
he had boon engaged by different parishes in the metropolis
to omit is proofs required in brothel promotions

—a cuing perhaps not of the meet respostable kiad, but
which he hoped would not now prejudice his. He had
been mimed in putting down two brothels in the neigh-
bourhood of the prosecutrix's house, at the instigation of
the Rev. Mr. Harness and other", and he thought he had a
right to prosecute her house, as it became the head
Namotg: r o4outte.s.g`Ae‘hla semen
complained n:dettlo 'kg!
Robinson,m
a lawyer, who was the landlord, that the house was being
carried os as a brothel, and he had desired her to quit,
through his clerk. He the most solemn aroverabons
that the charge agent coacocten 2,ll4;iriolt
band of banibelAtepers, who sought his ruin because he
had prol"::::ta them and cmpelled them to move from
".).7.e to place. lie should call the prosccutries husband
to prove that she was so intolerable that ho allowed her 201.
• year to live away from her.
James Edwards was then called into the box.

The prisoner first began to question him so to his wife's
character and then so to her brother's, but he was at once
stopped, as, in the first respect, evidence could not be given
by a husband against his wife, and, in the second, that it
had nothing to do with the caw.
The prisoner then packed up his documents and said that
was all the evidence he had to call.

Ihe Assistant Judge, in summing up, said if the pri-
soner's story were true he could have preduced Mr. Harness
to give evidence of his having employed him in brothel
eases, sod if be had, Mr. Harness, a respectable gentleman,
would not have abandoned him in his hour of nerd. The
prisoner had made assertions shoat the proucutrix's house
which were utterly contradicted, instead of being, as if true
they might have been, corroborated, and therefore they
ought to be looked upon as entirely groundless.
The jury, after a short deliberation, found the prisoner
Guilty.
The Assistant Judge said the prisoner was about the most
notorious rogue in London. Ile lived by this infamous
system of fraud and extortion. He had been convicted
twice ; on one occasion he was transported, and on another
he was sentenced to a year's hard labour. It had been re-
peatedly necessary that ho should caution grand juries of
the character of this person in brothel indictments, but
latterly this system had not been carried on to its former
extent, because in every indictment it was now required
that the person prosecuting should enter into a recognisance
to prosecute with effect, and to swear an affidavit that there
we'll) difficulty in the way of apprehending the defendants.
But, though that had been to some extent put an end to,
the prisoner had gone about frightening people out of their
wits, and pursuing a complete system of extortion. Even
were the prosecutnx a brothel keeper, of which then waa
not the slightest evidence, these extortionate practices
must not be resorted to. It was not to be endured, and
must be put down with a severe hand. It was impossible
that a gentleman like Mr. Harness could have been mixed
up with such a person.
Prisoner : Yes, and 140 housekeepers besides.
The Assistant Judge said he certainly recollected a case
in which the prisoner was emphyed by a parish, but a
pretty mess the parochial officers got into, in consequence.
He then sentenced the prisoner to one year's hard labour.