The Pall Mall Gazette - Monday, April 8, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
THE CHARGE AGAINST WILDE.
TAYLOR IN THE DOCK.
There was an eager little crowd round the outer doors of Bow-street police-court on Saturday. But very few of the men anxious to get a last glimpse of Oscar Wilde got into the court. Sir John Bridge, anxious to keep the atmosphere of the regular court as clear as possible, took the case in the little court upstairs. There is room for very few people in the court, and when the witnesses and the crowd of reporters had been accommodated, there was not much left for the ordinary curiosity-mongers. It was about eleven o'clock when Sir John took his seat. Immediately Oscar Wilde appeared through the doorway leading from the cells; he glanced round apprehensively. Then he was marched directly into the dock. Mr. Gill began at once. He appeared, he said, on behalf of the Public Prosecutor, to prosecute the prisoner on a series of charges under the 11th section of
There was an eager little crowd round the outer doors of Bow-street police-court this morning. But very few of the men anxious to get a last glimpse of Oscar Wilde got into the court. Sir John Bridge, anxious to keep the atmosphere of the regular court as clear as possible, took the case in the little court upstairs. There is room for very few people in the court, and when the witnesses and the crowd of reporters had been accommodated, there was not much left for the ordinary curiosity-mongers. It was about eleven o'clock when Sir John took his seat. Immediately Oscar Wilde appeared through the doorway leading from the cells, he glanced round apprehensively as he entered the court. Then he was marched directly into the dock. Mr. Gill began at once. He appeared, he said, on behalf of the Public Prosecutor, to prosecute the prisoner on a series of charges under the 11th section of
THE CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT ACT.
He would also be charged with conspiring with Alfred Taylor. The first case would be that of Charles Parker, to whom Wilde gave a gold ring and a cigarette case, various sums of money, and took him to the Crystal Palace and elsewhere. Parker was now leading a respectable life, and he would come forward and tell a story which would be corroborated in every particular. The police had enormously difficult duties to discharge. The difficulty they had in obtaining evidence would be well within his worship's knowledge. Taylor and his calling were known to the police, and the police had obtained access to his rooms, and gone through them. This case was a most unpleasant one, but it was of enormous public importance that it should be known to offenders that there was only one end to a life of crime and that end was the gaol. Charles Parker, a smartly dressed young man of nineteen, then went into the box and told the story indicated by Mr. Gill. In the middle of this boy's evidence there came a pleasing interruption. Mr. Gill stated that he was just informed that Taylor had been arrested and might now be put in the dock with the other prisoner. Taylor was then placed in the dock, and Parker went on with his story of the introduction to Wilde, and the subsequent developments. At the close of witness's examination Mr. Humphreys, on behalf of Wilde, reserved his cross-examination, as also did Taylor. After his depositions had been read over, Parker was bound over in £80 to appear and give evidence at the Central Criminal Court. Other witnesses were subsequently examined, and the case was adjourned, bail being refused.