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Original paragraph in
The Irish News and Belfast Morning News - Thursday, May 2, 1895
The Irish News and Belfast Morning News - Thursday, May 2, 1895
Most similar paragraph from
The Freeman’s Journal - Saturday, April 27, 1895
The Freeman’s Journal - Saturday, April 27, 1895
Difference
LONDON, WEDNESDAY.Oscar Wilde and Alfred Taylor again appeared in the dock at the Central Criminal Court to-day on the several
indictments preferred against them.
Oscar Wilde, 40, and Alfred Taylor, 33, appeared in the dock at the Central Criminal Court, to-day, to meet the charges made against
them.
Mr. Justice CHARLES began his summing up to the jury by remarking that the prosecuting counsel of conspiracy, and upon that part of
the case he should direct a verdict of not guilty. It was a rule of law that uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice could not be accepted, but there
was corroboration of the witnesses in this case in the sense in which the law required it. Parker, Atkins, and Wood had been properly described as
blackmailers, and being also accomplices, the jury, in considering the details of their evidence, would have to weigh their character. His Lordship
briefly commented on the Wilde v. Queensberry case, and passing to the literary part of the case said he did not think that in a criminal case the jury
ought to place an unavoidable inference upon the fact that Wilde was the author of "Dorian Grey." In the last century noble minded men penned volumes
which it was painful for a modest person to peruse. Wilde could not be held responsible for "The Priest and Acolyte," the work of another. He called
particular attention to Wilde’s answer given in cross-examination, in which he denied that his letters to Lord Alfred Douglas breathed an unnatural
passion. Upon this the jury would exercise their own judgment. The learned judge next approached the consideration of the charges in the order of their
date. Shelley was undoubtedly in the position of an accomplice, but his evidence was sufficiently corroborated to entitle the jury to consider it. His
Lordship severely commented on the character of Frederick Atkins, whose impudent denial and subsequent admission of the facts in the Pimlico blackmailing
incident had proved him to be untruthful and unscrupulous. The Savoy Hotel evidence was a most anxious part of the inquiry, and in regard to it he must
observe that there was nothing against the character of the Crown witnesses. After a reference to the part played by Wood in the matter of the Douglas and
Wilde letters, his Lordship reviewed the evidence against Taylor. The inquiry, said his Lordship in conclusion, was of great importance to the public, and
he committed the questions to the jury with perfect confidence. The jury retired to consider their verdict at 1.25. At 5.15 the jury returned into court
and informed his Lordship that they could not agree upon certain of the questions submitted to them. Replying to questions later, the foreman said there
was no possibility of an agreement. Upon the count of conspiracy his Lordship had early in the day directed a verdict of not guilty, and a formal finding
was now arrived at, but the Judge observed that all the material questions were unhappily undecided. He discharged the jury, and refused to bail Wilde and
Taylor, and informed Sir E. Clarke that an application must be made in Chambers.