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July 04
Mother strangled and set on fire by jealous boyfriend after she planned new life with boss
By Paul Sims
Daily Mail online 04th July 2009
Victim: Kirsty Wilson's body was found doused in petrol in a blazing house
A jilted martial arts expert was facing life behind bars last night for strangling his girlfriend after she revealed she was leaving him for her married boss.
Alan Jermey, 41, snapped after Mercedes executive Kirsty Wilson, 37, told him she had been having a year-long affair.
As their two children slept upstairs, he choked her to death before dousing her head in petrol and setting her and their family home ablaze.
He then climbed out of the bathroom window with their two young daughters and calmly waited for the fire brigade on their home's flat roof.
Jermey, a car salesman and black belt in kung fu, said he had made no attempt to rescue Miss Wilson, his partner of nine years, because of 'thick black billowing smoke coming up the stairs'.
But the fire brigade said there was little more smoke than might be found 'in a smoky pub'.
Last night, after being found guilty of murder by an Old Bailey jury, Miss Wilson's devastated parents paid tribute to their daughter.
Peter and Sandra Wilson, from Bradford, said: 'We have lost our only daughter Kirsty - a beautiful, vibrant young woman with the rest of her life ahead of her.
'She was the kind of woman who turned heads. She was kind, honest, had a wonderful sense of humour and was totally reliable.
'Our grandchildren have been deprived of their mother for the rest of their lives. They are too young to understand why their mummy has left them and gone to heaven. They are the real victims of this tragedy.'
Alan Jermey (top) killed Miss Wilson, rather than see her start a new life with Simon Goddard
Jermey hatched his plan last summer after learning that Miss Wilson planned to leave him for her married boss, Simon Goddard.
By then her affair with Mr Goddard, the managing director of the Tony Purslow Mercedes dealership in Basingstoke, Hampshire, had lasted a year. They had already started planning their lives together - where to live and how to rearrange things so as to cause the least disruption to their children.
In April, Mr Goddard left his wife and two children. A month later Miss Wilson finally told Jermey: 'I can't see us spending the rest of our lives together.'
At first he took it calmly. He joined dating agency Match.com and the Facebook website and 'told police officers he had had sex with three other women that year'.
But in August last year, after Miss Wilson discussed putting their four-bedroom house in Woking, Surrey, on the market, he killed her.
Jermey used a 100,000-volt stun gun he had secretly ordered over the internet to knock her out before strangling her.
Sarah Forshaw QC, prosecuting, said: 'The time was fast approaching when she was going to leave him. That night, when the children were upstairs asleep, he killed her.
'He arranged her dead body on the floor. He went out to the garage where he kept petrol cans for the lawnmower. He poured petrol over her, particularly over her head and her neck and he set fire to her.
'He was particularly anxious that he may have left signs around her that identified himself as her strangler. He expected the fire to take hold immediately and for the house to go up in flames. The fire never really took hold.'
Jermey said he had gone to bed early and left Miss Wilson downstairs when he was woken by an explosion and was prevented from saving her by thick black smoke.
When it became apparent that the fire had not destroyed her body, Jermey tried to explain bruising on her neck by claiming he had given her a 'neck massage' earlier in the evening.
Yesterday Mr Goddard said they were 'very much in love' and planned to marry. He added: 'I still find it hard to accept that all of our dreams and plans for the future will never materialise.'
Outside court Detective Inspector Paul Monk said: 'Jermey was consumed with jealousy and rage.
'He may have perversely believed that by taking Kirsty's life he could ignore the collapse of their relationship and retain full custody of their children. In fact, his wicked act has deprived two young girls of both their parents.'
Jermey will be sentenced on Monday. July 03 Gang rape pair get longer sentences
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Metro London , online.
Rapists Rogel McMorris and Jason Brew have had their sentences increased
Two men involved in the gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl who was doused in caustic soda at the end of her "nightmare ordeal" have had their jail sentences increased by the Court of Appeal.
Three judges in London ruled the terms being served by Rogel McMorris, 18, and Jason Brew, 19, who were jailed at London's Wood Green Crown Court on January 19, were "unduly lenient".
McMorris had his sentence increased from nine years to 14 years, while Brew had his six-year sentence raised to nine years.
The victim, who had a mental age of just eight, was disfigured for life in the attack in Tottenham, north London.
Their cases were referred to the Court of Appeal by Attorney General Baroness Scotland.
Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Simon and Mr Justice Blair, increased the term imposed in the case of Jamaican-born McMorris, of Antill Road, Tottenham, north London, who was convicted of two rape counts and one of causing grievous bodily harm, from nine years to 14 years.
Co-defendant Brew, of High Cross Road, Haringey, north London, who was found guilty of one charge of rape, had his six-year sentence raised to nine years.
The judges decided not to increase the sentence imposed on Angolan immigrant Hector Muaimba, 21, of Guildford Road, Waltham Forest, east London, who was also found guilty of one charge of rape.
He was sentenced to six years for the attack and is serving an additional two years for a separate Old Bailey conviction for robbery.
'Double jeopardy' thug who confessed killing to his new lover jailed for 23 years after she comes round from coma
By Rebecca Camber
Daily Mail online 03rd July 2009
A callous and calculating killer was jailed for life today for a murder that he had been acquitted of seven years earlier in a landmark double jeopardy case.
Mario Celaire, 31, thought he had cheated justice when he was cleared by a jury in 2002 of killing his ex-girlfriend Cassandra McDermott.
But yesterday he was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years behind bars at the Old Bailey for battering her to death and for a second attack on another girlfriend who he bludgeoned with a hammer, leaving her severely brain damaged and disabled.
Footballer Mario Celaire was found guilty of the manslaughter of Cassandra McDermott, even though he was cleared of her killing seven years ago
The former professional footballer and builder beat 19-year-old Cassandra McDermott to death in an explosion of violence in November 2001.
But he was cleared of murder and manslaughter the following year after claiming he left her 'alive and well' minutes before her death.
In 2007 he struck again, attacking his 19-year-old former lover Kara Hoyte with a hammer in her home.
The 19-year-old aspiring model was found barely conscious lying in a pool of blood with her skull fractured in three places.
Celaire was only brought to justice through the heroic efforts of Miss Hoyte who identified him as her attacker from her hospital bed days after coming out of a coma.
Unable to speak, she repeatedly hit her fist on a white board bearing his name after her mother Eunice Lander wrote out a name of suspects.
Suffering from speech difficulties, it took almost a year before she was able to speak to detectives, telling them Celaire had previously confessed to her that he killed Miss McDermott.
Kara Hoyte was left paralysed and barely able to speak after she was savagely beaten with a hammer
In a landmark case lawyers for the Crown applied to the Director of Public Prosecutions to re-open the inquiry into Miss McDermott's killing.
Celaire's acquittal was quashed in the Court of Appeal after the 800-year-old 'double jeopardy' law was scrapped in 2005 by then home secretary David Blunkett.
Previously anyone acquitted by a jury could not be retried for the same offence, but suspects acquitted by a jury can now be retried if 'new and compelling' evidence is produced.
Celaire became the first person to be convicted of a crime for which a jury had cleared him in May this year.
Yesterday the families of his two victims cheered, screaming 'liar' and 'dead man walking' as he was given double life sentences.
Miss Hoyte, who was present in court, sobbed uncontrollably, clutching her mum, Mrs Lander for support.
Yesterday she issued a moving statement as she faced the man who tried to kill her.
Prosecuting, Simon Denison, QC, read out a letter to Celaire on her behalf as Miss Hoyte, now 21, suffers from the language disorder aphasia.
She said: 'Why did you do this to me, why could you not just leave me alone?
'I stand here today for you to see what you did to me.
'I don't hate you, I pity you.
'I will get better and better with each day and stronger, you have only damaged my shell.
Kara Hoyte was able to tell police that Celaire was her attacker and that he had confessed to a previous killing
'I am still the same determined and strong person I always was.
'I leave here today free with the whole world at my feet and a new life and to be whatever I choose to be.
'You on the other hand have a long time to reflect and to understand you cannot control another person.'
The court heard Celaire was a narcissistic control freak with a history of violence against young women. At the age of 15 he was jailed for four years for raping a young schoolgirl.
On his release the Maidstone United player went on to form a relationship with 15-year-old Miss McDermott whom he regularly punched.
On November 26, 2001 the 24-year-old beat Miss McDermott unconscious at her mother's house in Granville Gardens, Norbury, south London, before fleeing.
She was later found dead by her sister having choked on her own vomit.
In November 2002 an Old Bailey jury acquitted Celaire of both murder and manslaughter after less than three hours deliberation.
The case remained unsolved until December 2007 when Celaire was charged with the attempted murder of Miss Hoyte at a flat in Walthamstow.
Detectives believe that Celaire may have attempted to kill Miss Hoyte to stop her telling police about his first victim after Celaire confessed when he was confronted by Miss Hoyte who found court papers relating to his acquittal.
Judge Paul Worsley QC told Celaire said: 'Your delay in admitting these charges so long after the offences had been committed was callous and calculating.
'In the case of Cassandra's family, they no longer have the joy of seeing her progress through life.
'In the case of Kara, her family have the heartache of a life forever changed.
'Both girls were vulnerable. They were alone, they trusted you, they let you into their homes where they thought they were safe and you showed them no mercy.
'In my judgement you present a very real and continuing danger to young women with whom you enter into a relationship.'
White supremacist 'planned a race hate terrorism campaign', court hears
A white supremacist who was arrested by chance for smoking on a train had two homemade bombs stashed in a holdall and was on the verge of a race hate terrorism campaign, a court has heard.
By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
29 Jun 2009
Daily Telegraph online
Neil Lewington, 43, idolised David Copeland, the London nail bomber and Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, and aimed to target "those he considered non-British", jurors at the Old Bailey were told.
He spoke of converting tennis balls into shrapnel bombs and police found two handwritten notes inside his wallet, headed "date, place, target", jurors heard. He allegedly told police officers that detained him that "I'm Bin Laden".
Detectives found he had turned the bedroom of the house that he lived in with his parents in Reading, Berks, into a bomb factory containing canisters of weedkiller, timers and other components.
Searches also revealed a notebook entitled "Waffen SS UK members' handbook" with drawings of electronics and chemical mixtures.
Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting, said: "The effect of these findings is to prove that this man who had strong if not fanatical Right-wing leanings and opinions was on the cusp of embarking on a campaign of terror against those he regarded as being not British."
Police uncovered the alleged threat that Mr Lewington posed by chance last October as he travelled to Lowestoft, Suffolk, for a date with a woman he had met on the internet. He was smoking and being abusive on a train and was arrested at Lowestoft for the public order offences, including urinating at the station.
At the police station, inside a blue holdall, officers found the components to two "viable improvised incendiary devices" and handwritten notebooks detailing electronics and chemical mixtures to make bombs, it is alleged.
Mr Altman said: "He had the parts which, if assembled together, would have created devices which if ignited would have caught alight and caused flames and fire.
"Later searches of the house where the defendant lived with his parents in Reading, in particular his own bedroom, revealed nothing short of a factory for the production of many such similar devices.
"In addition to all of that the police discovered evidence that the defendant sympathised with and quite clearly adhered to white supremacist and racist views."
Mr Lewington lived the existence of a "loner", his parents told police, and had not spoken to his father for 10 years.
He left school at 16 without qualifications but had worked in a number of electronics jobs. He had been unemployed for 10 years after being sacked from his last job for being drunk.
Mr Lewington had two video compilations of news and documentary footage about bombers and bombings both in Britain and the US, the court heard.
These included the Mardi Gras bomber, who targeted Barclays Bank and Sainsbury's, as well as Copeland and McVeigh.
Lewington had made a number of girlfriends he met over mobile phone chatlines, calling himself Aristocrat or Amadeus.
Mr Altman said he had made racist remarks and spoke to some of converting tennis balls into bombs.
One woman was put off by him when he said "the only good Paki was a dead Paki" and said he was a member of the National Front and wanted the Ku Klux Klan brought back, it was alleged.
To other girlfriends he also spoke of making tennis balls converted into shrapnel bombs which he said he had exploded in the woods. After his arrest he asked to make a call to the woman he was meant to be meeting in Suffolk.
When he was refused he said: "She's Mrs Bin Laden the terrorist and my name's Bin Laden."
He told another detention officer that the devices in his bag were for a fireworks weekend.
"I'm Bin Laden. I just wanted a pyrotechnic weekend with my girlfriend," he allegedly said.
Mr Lewington denies eight charges, including preparing for terrorism by having the bomb parts in a public place, having articles and documents for terrorism and possessing an explosive device "with intent to endanger life".
The trial continues.
Father hangs himself after discovering schoolgirl's killer could be released to an address close by
By Daily Mail Reporter
03rd July 2009
The father of a schoolgirl murdered by a paedophile hanged himself after discovering her killer could be released back to an address near him.
Twelve-year-old Katrina Monk was snatched yards from her home in 1993 as she returned from school.
Her body was found the next day in an alleyway close to her home. Her wrists and ankles were bound and a plastic bag had been put over her head and taped up.
A stepfather hanged himself after finding out that the man who killed his schoolgirl daughter could be released back to an address near him
Neighbour Keith Collard, 24, a loner with an obsession for pornography, was arrested the following day.
It emerged that Collard had dragged her into his garden shed at gunpoint before molesting her, suffocating her and dumping the body in an alleyway where it was found.
Her stepfather Lewis Poole-Warren, 42, who had brought her up since the age of five, hanged himself last week.
Today Katrina's mother, who went on to have two daughters with Lewis, said he couldn't cope with the fact that Collard could be released back to the area.
Devastated Valerie, 50, said they had recently found out Collard, who was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey in December 1993, had a parole board hearing in December this year.
She said: 'We had been trying to find out about what was happening with Keith Collard so we contacted the parole board.
'They told us Collard has a hearing on December 22 this year to decide if he should have immediate parole or whether he should be sent to an open prison. Then if he is a good boy for six months he will be released.
'Lewis and I were shocked. And to make it worse Collard put an Enfield address down as his return address and it was too much for Lewis.
'When he found out he was so furious he punched a wall, shattering his hand. As he's a carpenter he couldn't work and had to sign on. He just couldn't cope - before he killed himself he hadn't worked for several weeks.'
Tragically Katrina's two brothers, Jason and Danny, who Lewis trained to be kitchen fitters, are now also dead.
Jason died of tuberculosis in December 2003 aged 28 and Danny succumbed to leukaemia in October 2007 aged 30.
Valerie added: 'Hearing Collard could be out soon brought everything back for Lewis. After Katrina was found, suspicion immediately fell on him as her step-father.
'Lewis was devastated when police searched the house as he loved her like his own and would never hurt her.
'Lewis sat by my side throughout the court case in 1993, but after he struggled to cope and we split up for a while.
'We then married and had two daughters, Michaela, 12, and Shannon, nine. Lewis doted on them and when we split up in 2003 he saw them regularly.'
Valerie said she saw Lewis the day before he hanged himself when she went to pick up the girls.
She said: 'He'd had the girls for the weekend and he seemed in good spirits.
'I knew he was struggling with the news about Collard but we had set up a petition to fight it.
'It came as such a shock and the girls are beside themselves with grief - they haven't been able to cope with school.
'Keith Collard should never be allowed out for what he did to our little girl, he's a monster. Lewis just couldn't stand the thought of him being released.'
From The Times
Frances Gibb, Legal Editor
June 19, 2009
First criminal trial without a jury for 400 years
The case concerns an armed robbery at a warehouse at Heathrow
Four men accused of being part of a gang that stole £1.75 million in a raid at Heathrow face the first criminal trial without a jury in England and Wales for 400 years after an historic Court of Appeal decision yesterday.
John Twomey, 61, Peter Blake, 56, Barry Hibberd, 41, and Glen Cameron, 49, must be tried by a judge alone after claims of jury nobbling at a previous trial, the court ruled.
The four are alleged to have taken part in a bungled armed robbery of a Menzies World Cargo warehouse in February 2004. They deny a series of charges, including conspiracy to rob and the possession of a firearm.
The robbery has already given rise to three trials at a total cost of £22 million. The third collapsed last year after what the judge called “a serious attempt at jury tampering”.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, with Lord Justice Goldring and Mr Justice McCombe, decided yesterday that the case could be heard by a judge alone. A preliminary hearing for the fourth trial is scheduled to take place at the Old Bailey on July 10.
The ruling means that the new trial, which would normally be tried by a jury, will be the first of its kind in England and Wales under legislation that took effect in 2003 to prevent jury nobbling. The only other judge-only trials for serious cases, known as Diplock trials, have been in Northern Ireland.
Defence lawyers reacted with dismay, saying that they did not know the detail of the allegations and therefore were unable to rebut them. They said that they would seek an explanation from the Attorney-General, Baroness Scotland, QC, as to why safeguards agreed by Parliament to give a defendant the right to challenge a judge-only direction appeared to have been ignored.
The judge-only provisions are contained in the Criminal Justice Act 2003. But after concerns during the Bill’s passage, including by Vera Baird, QC, now Solicitor-General, MPs agreed that defendants must have an opportunity to make representations.
Lord Judge said: “The case concerns very serious criminal activity, including possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, possession of a firearm with intent to commit robbery and conspiracy to rob.”
During a “carefully planned and professionally executed armed robbery” a gun was fired at a supervisor, he said. “The objective of the robbery was something in the region of £10 million in sterling and mixed foreign currency. As a result of a misreading of a flight manifest, the proceeds amounted to £1.75 million, which are largely unrecovered.”
Lord Judge added: “In this country trial by jury is a hallowed principle of the administration of criminal justice. It is properly identified as a right, available to be exercised by a defendant unless and until the right is amended or circumscribed by express legislation.”
But, he said, the constitutional responsibilities of the jury were flouted if “the integrity of an individual juror, and thus of the jury as a whole, is compromised. Such a compromise occurs when any juror, whether because of intimidation, bribery or any other reasons, dishonours or becomes liable to dishonour his or her oath as a juror by allowing anything to undermine or qualify the juror’s duty to give a true verdict according to the evidence.”
The application for a judge-only trial came after the collapse last year of the case before Judge Roberts, QC, after a trial of more than six months. As the decision over a judge-only trial involved important matters of public policy, he referred it to a senior judge.
In March this year it was considered by Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, who looked at two options with varying levels of juror protection for what would be a six-month trial: the more intensive would have cost about £6 million and required at least 82 police officers to be removed from their normal duties. The second would have cost £1.5 million and have required at least 32 police officers.
Mr Justice Calvert-Smith held that there was evidence of a “real and present danger” that jury tampering would take place at the trial and that the risk would remain throughout the trial. But he concluded that a “package” of measures to provide jury protection would be sufficient to reduce to the risk to an acceptable level.
Yesterday the appeal judges disagreed. Even if steps were taken to protect the jury, the likelihood that tampering would take place was “so substantial” as to make it necessary for a trial without a jury in the interests of justice.
Fragile justice
— George Francis went on trial in 1983 after alleged involvement with armed robbers who had moved into drug trafficking. Underworld sources said that he offered £100,000 to nobble the jurors. A first jury failed to reach a verdict and a second acquitted him amid rumours that the North London Adams family had taken up his offer.
— A string of trials in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s led to “perverse acquittals” in terrorist cases because of partisan jurors or jury intimidation. Loyalists used to bang Lambeg drums outside courtrooms to remind the jury to make the “right” choice. From 1973, Diplock courts sat with judges but no juries.
— A prosecution barrister, Brian O’Neill, was struck in the face with a brick during a drug trial in 2002. The trial was adjourned for a week and eventually halted when it was suspected that a juror had also been intimidated. A retrial was held at the Old Bailey with police protection for the jury and counsel.
— Jury nobbling used to be known as “embracery”. A spate of incidents in the 1960s, including seven in 1966 alone, led to the introduction of the majority verdict with the Criminal Justice Act 1967.
— John Goodwin was found guilty in 1983 of approaching at least four and up to eight jurors in his trial on £1.25 million burglary charges. Goodwin and eight others were implicated in the plot to offer jurors £1,000 to acquit him and his co-defendant.
June 14
Marked men: Notorious criminal family 'has put a price on the heads of Ben Kinsella's murderers'
By Tom Kelly
13th June 2009
Daily Mail online
The Adams family were so angry about Ben Kinsella's murder they have put 'big money' on the heads of his killers
Ben Kinsella's murderers are living with death threats from one of Britain's most notorious criminal gangs, it emerged today.
The Adams family, who 'run' the north London neighbourhood where the schoolboy lived, is said to have put a bounty on the heads of the feral youths who stabbed him to death in a frenzied attack.
Today, as Michael Alleyne, 18, Juress Kika, 19, and Jade Braithwaite, 20, were jailed for life, the Old Bailey heard that they would be 'marked men' in prison.
The Adams family are involved in violent racketeering and drug trafficking and have been linked to 25 murders.
They have no links to the Kinsella family, but its mob leaders were said to be so horrified by the senseless killing of the 16-year-old in their patch that they put up the reward.
Prosecutor Nicholas Hilliard QC told the court: 'A family known as the Adams family made it known that they weren't happy with a killing on the streets of their area.
'They are a pretty serious family.'
He added the family were making 'inquiries' to hunt down those responsible.
In secret recordings made by police after his arrest Braithwaite told his accomplices: 'The family have got big money down. They have put money on whoever was involved heads.'
He added he was scared because 'the Adams family's right-hand man wants to speak to me.'
Killers: (top , middle , bottom) Jade Braithwaite, 20, Juress Kika, 19, and Michael Alleyne, 18, were jailed for life and told they will serve at least 19 years in jail
Yesterday the court heard that the killers have been served with letters from the prison authorities asking them to raise any concerns or incidents amid fears of retaliation.
Nerida Harford-Bell, defending Braithwaite, said the murderer 'understands he is a marked man.'
She said Braithwaite's mother, grandmother and aunt had either moved or were in the process of moving homes because of fears.
James Nichol, solicitor advocate for Kika, said the letter from the prison authorities was being 'taken seriously.'
The Old Bailey erupted in cheers as the Common Serjeant of London, Judge Brian Barker, sentenced each of the killers to a minimum of 19 years today.
Dignified: Ben's sister Brooke who played Kelly Taylor in EastEnders
Ben's sister, Brooke Kinsella, who played Kelly Taylor in EastEnders, clapped once as the sentences were read out and then kept a dignified silence with the rest of the her family, father George, mother Deborah, and sisters Jade, Georgia and Holly.
But other friends applauded and shouted 'bye bye' and 'enjoy your porridge' as the killers were taken down to the cells.
The taunts prompted Kika and Alleyne to turn and jeer and make gestures at the onlookers.
An argument also broke out in the public gallery between Ben's friends and a small group of the killers' families, before police officers intervened and ushered them out.
The killers, who all had previous convictions for robbery and drugs offences, stabbed Ben 11 times in five seconds after chasing him down a road near his home in Islington, North London, last year.
They attacked him because believed they had been 'disrespected' in an earlier fight - which Ben was not involved in - that started over a dirty look.
Ben was out celebrating the end of his GCSEs when he was murdered.
He never got to find out that he had passed the exams with a string of A-grades, providing him a springboard he needed to realise his ambition of becoming a graphic designer.
Passing sentence, Judge Barker told the killers: 'Ben Kinsella had in front of him a lifetime of promise and you have taken all that away from him by a brutal, cowardly and totally unjustified attack.
'The background is depressing and all too familiar in these courts. It reflects the futility of carrying and using knives by some young people.
'Your behaviour generates outrage in all right-minded people and your blind and heartless anger defies belief.'
Pleased: George and Deborah Kinsella outside the Old Bailey today
He said there was 'no suggestion' Ben had been involved in the trouble preceding the stabbing and was instead trying to get away when he found himself encircled and attacked.
'No attempt was made to help him in any way and not a hint of remorse has been shown by any of you.'
The judge said there was 'no possible excuse' for what happened.
'I can only deduce that in your minds someone had to pay the ultimate price, whoever that might be. What you have done has caused untold anguish,' he said.
'This was a terrible attack and you knew exactly what you were doing and you must take responsibility for your actions.'
The crime was aggravated by the fact that they picked on 'an obviously younger and smaller lone victim', the judge added.
Brooke Kinsella said outside court: 'The sentences are good, but it is little more than Ben lived, so it is not really enough.'
Ben's mother, Deborah, told ITV News she wished the sentences were longer. 'Life should be life' she said.
The Adams family's head mobster, Terry Adams, was finally jailed two years ago for money laundering following a ten-year investigation into his £200million criminal empire. March 10 Sorry that I have not been adding to the site but I hope to do so very soon. A big " thank you " to all who have visited and I hope you have enjoyed the site. November 26
His Honour Robert Lymbery
Judge who presided over some of the country's biggest criminal trials in 32 years on the bench
Daily Telegraph online 12 Nov 2008
His Honour Robert Lymbery, who died on October 13 aged 87, dispensed justice with outstanding impartiality and consistent soundness.
As Common Serjeant in the City of London, the second most senior judge at the Old Bailey, Lymbery presided over some of the country's biggest criminal trials. He served for almost 32 years on the bench, an almost unprecedented span, and virtually everyone who came before him went away feeling that they had had a fair hearing.
One of the most notorious villains to be tried by him was Valerio Viccei, the Ferrari-driving mastermind of the £40 million safe deposit robbery in Knightsbridge in 1987, one of Britain's biggest robberies. The haul was so large that Viccei filled his bath with banknotes and covered the floor of his Hampstead flat with jewels. Lymbery sentenced him to 22 years' imprisonment – but Viccei later felt moved to write to the judge thanking him for his exemplary conduct of the trial.
Lymbery's judgments scarcely ever gave rise to controversy. An exception, however, was his decision to grant bail to Winston Silcott, who was subsequently convicted of the murder, while he was on bail, of Pc Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots.
At the time that he was bailed by Lymbery, Silcott had been on remand for a previous murder, of which he was subsequently convicted. At the committal stage, however, the prosecution case looked very weak; and the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, who was too much of a politician easily to exonerate a judge, later defended Lymbery's decision on bail as having been "entirely proper" in the circumstances.
For his own part, Lymbery said: "Like everyone else in the country, I am desperately saddened by the whole thing. But one is a professional and has to act accordingly." (Silcott's conviction for the murder of Pc Blakelock was eventually overturned on appeal in 1991, but he remained in prison for the other murder – of which he continues to protest his innocence – until 2003.)
Robert Davison Lymbery was born on November 14 1920 in Nottingham, where his family owned a lace manufacturing business and a large laundry. After Gresham's in Norfolk, where he excelled at rugby and hockey, he went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, to read Law, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
In 1940 he was commissioned into the 17th/21st Lancers and he subsequently saw action as a tank commander with the Eighth Army in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Greece. Demobbed in 1946 in the rank of major, he returned to Cambridge, where he became a member of Hawks' Club and after two years graduated with a First.
After reading for the Bar he was called by Middle Temple in 1949 as a Harmsworth Scholar. He joined the chambers of Richard Elwes, QC, in King's Bench Walk, sharing a room with Geoffrey Lane, the future Lord Chief Justice, and set about building a predominantly criminal practice on the Midland Circuit. He took Silk in 1967.
His first judicial appointment was as Recorder of Grantham in 1965. He served as chairman of the Rutland Quarter Sessions from 1966 until 1971 and of the Bedford Quarter Sessions from 1969 to 1970. He was Commissioner of Assize in 1971, and the same year became a circuit judge, initially sitting at Bedford. He transferred to the Old Bailey in 1982.
Among his first defendants at Bedford was a self-styled white witch, who had stolen an altar cross and candlesticks from a church. Lymbery gave the woman a suspended prison sentence but advised her to look into her crystal ball to see what would happen if she broke the law again. "In case it is cloudy," he said, "I will tell you. You will go to prison."
In 1975 Lymbery inspired a Giles cartoon in the Daily Express when he heard an appeal against a decision by magistrates that a 12-stone Great Dane called Caliph was dangerous and should be destroyed. The dog had savaged a goat and then kept at bay a boy who had gone to the scene.
Lymbery, in wig and gown and accompanied by court officials, went to cast a judicial eye over the dog in the anteroom. After patting the dog on the head, he bravely put his hand to Caliph's mouth to examine his teeth and was promptly bitten.
Nothing daunted, he returned to the courtroom and reprieved the dog, saying: "What I did was my fault, which is why I am not complaining... I don't blame the dog in any way, he seemed a terribly friendly character." He then went to hospital for stitches and an anti-tetanus injection.
Bob Lymbery was a devoted and extremely conscientious lawyer. Whenever there was an opportunity to save time, he was inclined to seize it.
Occasionally, after a legal dinner, the black Daimler taking Lord Lane and his friends home would appear to break down on the motorway, and glide to a stop on the hard shoulder beneath a bridge, enabling Lymbery to get out, clamber up the embankment and walk to his house 200 yards away.
Away from the law, his main interest was gardening. A courteous, quietly spoken, almost diffident man, both on the bench and off it, he was none the less also gregarious and was excellent company. He had a keen sense of humour and enjoyed practical jokes and dressing up. As Common Serjeant in the Lord Mayor's procession, he once took a puppet along with him to entertain the crowd.
He married, in 1952, Anne Tuckett, who survives him with their three daughters. October 24
From The Times
October 24, 2008
Spy suspect Daniel James says he used voodoo to protect general
Michael Evans, Defence Editor
The army interpreter accused of spying for Iran while serving in Afghanistan told the Old Bailey yesterday that he was a voodoo priest who had used black magic to protect his military boss from the Taleban in 2006.
Giving evidence for the first time at his trial, Corporal Daniel James, who is charged under the 1911 Official Secrets Act, said he had been trained as a voodoo priest on one of his many trips to Cuba and told the jury: “Black magic is not bad.”
His boss was General Sir David Richards, who in 2006 was commander of the Nato International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). Corporal James, who was in the Territorial Army, was the general's principal interpreter and attended meetings with him with senior members of the Afghan Government.
Under questioning by Colin Nicholls, QC, his defence counsel, Corporal James said he “quite liked” General Richards and used black magic on his behalf, although he emphasised that this was something he carried out without the general needing to be present.
For his voodoo rituals he used a combination of seashells, dust, Tarot cards and candles, and had a picture of General Richards.
Corporal James, 45, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of communicating information and collecting documents useful to an enemy, and one of wilful misconduct in public office.
The jury was told that he had been a salsa dance instructor, bodybuilder, champion power-lifter, an expert in kickboxing, a nightclub doorman and a croupier. He said that he had been talent-spotted by Jonathan Ross and appeared on television in the 1980s. He owned a club in Brighton and liked to be known as “Danny James, King of Salsa”.
One of nine children of affluent parents, Corporal James was born in Tehran as Esmail Mohammed Beigi Gamasai and came to live in Britain when he was 15, attending boarding school in Rottingdean, East Sussex.
He told the court that his job with General Richards was only a “tiny part” of what he did in Kabul. His other activities included organising salsa lessons, Spanish classes, volleyball, football, cricket and women's football.
Before he began interpreting for the general, Corporal James worked for a British colonel at an American camp in Kabul, helping to train the Afghan military. He said he thought that Americans were “fantastic people”. “They are loud and funny, like me,” he said.
The prosecution has claimed that he sent e-mail messages and made telephone calls to a Colonel Mohammad Heydari, a military assistant at the Iranian Embassy in Kabul. The Old Bailey has also heard that when he was arrested at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire in December 2006, on his way back to Afghanistan after a two-week break, police found in his bag a USB memory stick which, among other things, contained copies of two Nato-confidential military “situation reports”.
In written evidence, a British intelligence colonel, identified only as M, said that Corporal James had no right to possess such documents and that it was a “matter of serious concern”. He said that the e-mails that Corporal James sent to the Iranian military assistant, although not damaging in themselves, indicated a situation in which an espionage informant was communicating with a handler and that there was the potential for the interpreter to be “tasked” by the Iranian to obtain confidential material. That could have put British lives at risk and threatened national security, he said.
The trial continues.
October 22
THE GAOL DELIVERY, AND THE TRIALS AND SENTENCES OF ALL THE PRISONERS AT THE OLD BAILEY SESSIONS, TOGETHER WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE EXECUTION OF FIFTEEN UNFORTUNATE CONVICTS.
Text
THE GAOL DELIVERY, AND THE TRIALS AND SENTENCES OF ALL THE PRISONERS AT THE OLD BAILEY SESSIONS, TOGETHER WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE EXECUTION OF FIFTEEN UNFORTUNATE CONVICTS.
The April sessions ended at the Old Bailey, on the 25th, when 13 convicts received judgment of death; 60 were sentenced to be transported, two of whom, for stripping children, are to be sent to Africa, the other women to New South Wales; 8 to be imprisoned in Newgate; 1 to hard labour in the house of correction; 5 to be whipped; and 31 discharged by proclamation. Elizabeth Kirvan, a convict for forgery, whose execution was respited on her plea of pregnancy, is referred to her former judgment, she not being pregnant. The sessions of the peace is adjourned until Monday the 21st day of May next. at Guildhall; and the sessions of GoalDelivery of Newgate, until Wednesday, the 23rd day of the same month, at the old Bailey. APRIL 26. EXECUTIONS. The following 15 convicts were brought out of Newgate on the platform erected before the Debtor's-door, and executed pursuant to their sentence, viz., Francis Parr, for personating Isaac Hart, the proprietor of £3,900 3 per cent. consolidated annuities, with intent to defaud the said Isaac Hart and the 0-ovenor and Company of the Bank of England; William Trapshaw, for breaking open, in the day-time the apartments of James Linney, in a house let to several tenants, and stealing a linen gown and an apron, no person being then therein; Joseph Mullagan, James Coleman, and John Williamson ilalfey, for breaking and enter- ing the dwelling house of Joseph Stokes, in the parish of St. Catherine, and stealing a sheet, a blanket, and other things; Charles Baker, for breaking and entering the dwelling house of William Watson, in the parish of St Matthew, Bethnal-green, and stealing several small casks, containing a quantity of spirituous liquors; William Dwyre, for feloniously and traitorously counterfeiting the current coin of this kingdom, called six-pences, by coloring certain pieces of brass with a certain liquid composition producing the color of silver; Charles Shaw, for assaulting John Hughes on the highway in St. Paul's Churchyard, and robbing him of a silver watch, &c. ; John Walker and John Evans, for assaulting William Stevenson on the highway, in Old-street, and robbing him of a silver watch, two guineas and a half, some silver, and a dollar; Elizabeth Sedgewick, for setting fire to the premises of her master, Mr. John Taylor, at Feitham-hill, Middlesex; Michael Daily and Elizabeth Connolly, for stealing in the dwelling-house of Mrs. Catherine IPlOmer, in lowland street, Oxford road, a gold watch, a silver watch, several articles of plate, and a quantity of wearing apparel; John-Pousarque Dubois, for breaking into the dwelling-house of John Grant, in Cockspur street, and stealing a gold watch, a silver watch, a metal watch, and other things; and John Adamson, for assaulting Samuel Home, on the highway, near the Opera-house, in the Haymarket, and taking from him, by force, a metal watch in a shagreen case. They all behaved very penitent. D. W. Murcutt, Printer, Stationer, &c., Long Acre, London. 2x2 178
October 20
From The Times
December 13, 2007
Why is Home Office trying to stage murder trial in secret?
Frances Gibb, Legal Editor
The Home Secretary is seeking to have the trial of a man accused of murdering a prize-winning author held in secret because the defendant may have links with British Intelligence, The Times has learnt.
Jacqui Smith has signed a “public interest immunity” certificate to have some or all of the trial for the murder of Allan Chappelow, the author of several books on the playwright George Bernard Shaw, held in camera. The highly unusual move is thought to be the first where such a “gagging order” has been sought in a murder trial.
Mr Chappelow, 86, a recluse, was found dead at his home in Hampstead, northwest London, in June last year under a pile of papers. A post-mortem examination showed that he had died from head injuries.
The defendant on trial for his murder is Wang Yam, 45, of Hampstead, who also faces charges of burglary and deception. Mr Yam, a financial trader, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
According to reports at the time, the author might have been the victim of identity theft before his death: it was said that bank officials tipped off police after becoming aware that Mr Chappelow had lost money from his account through a series of false transactions.
The Crown Prosecution Service has posted a notice at the Central Criminal Court in London, indicating that last week it applied for “part of the preliminary proceedings and trial” in the case of Regina v Wang Yam to be held in camera. The notice says: “The full grounds for the application are deliberately not set out in this Notice other than the order sought is to ensure the due administration of justice.”
All lawyers involved in the case are under orders not to discuss it. The trial is listed to take place on January 23.
A spokesman for the CPS confirmed yesterday that the PII application had been made. A hearing will be held on January 14 at which the application can be challenged — and a judge will decide whether the certificate should stand.
The general grounds under which public interest immunity may be claimed include the interests of national security and good diplomatic relations; protecting the identity of informants or sources of criminal intelligence; and where confidentiality is necessary in the interests of justice.
In the days before the discovery of Mr Chappelow’s body, £10,000 was reported to have been transferred from one of his bank accounts by a man claiming to be him. Four cheques, mail and a mobile phone were missing from his house in Downshire Hill, Hampstead. Nine days after his body was discovered on June 14, a fire broke out at the house, damaging up to 35 per cent of the ground floor and part of the basement and first floor. The house had become notorious among the smart neighbouring houses for its overgrown garden and ramshackle appearance.
Ian Leigh, professor at the human rights centre, Durham University, said that the signing of a PII certificate to have a murder trial or part of it in camera was highly unusual.
“There is a risk to the administration of justice when this happens. A trial is not a private matter: a very important aspect is that they should take place in public, particularly where public bodies are involved, because this acts as a spur to the highest standards by all involved.” He added that if it was impossible to have the trial in public without the evidence in question, then one consideration should be to drop the prosecution, “if the circumstances are such that either there would be damage to the public interest or the potential for an injustice”.
John Cooper, a criminal barrister and member of the Bar Council, said: “It is extremely unusual for any trial to be heard in camera. Open justice is one of the fundamental principles of the criminal justice system. For that to be compromised in any way means that there must be highly exceptional circumstances.”
Gagging orders
— PII certificates are normally used in trials to protect official secrets – and so they are often described as “gagging orders”
— After a minister signs a PII certificate to stop disclosure the issue then comes before a judge to decide whether the certificate can stand
— Public interest immunity, a principle of English common law developed by judges over the centuries, used to be called Crown privilege
— PII certificates may be used where evidence has been gathered in confidence, such as in child cruelty cases
October 18
Husband hacked wife to death with meat cleaver after she changed Facebook status to single
By Paul Cheston
DAILY MAIL online
17th October 2008
Murdered: Emma Forrester was hacked with a meat cleaver by her husband. He claimed he was provoked when she changed her marital status to 'single' on Facebook
A husband who hacked his wife to death with a meat cleaver in fury over her Facebook entry was jailed for a minimum of 14 years at the Old Bailey today.
Wayne Forrester, 34, drank alcohol and took cocaine before driving 15 miles to the family home to attack wife Emma as she lay in bed.
The couple had separated four days before the murder in February and Forrester later told police he had been provoked by his wife changing her marital status to "single" on her Facebook entry, the court heard.
Forrester, a HGV driver, admitted murder in February this year in New Addington, near Croydon.
Emma was found in a pool of blood after neighbours were woken at 6.30am by her screams. Near her body was a large kitchen knife and in another room a blood-soaked meat cleaver.
Jailing him for life, the Common Serjeant of London Brian Barker QC said: "Your wife ended the relationship. Your reaction was one of anger and resentment.
"There is no possible excuse or justification.
"This is a tragic killing of a young woman and what you have done has called untold anguish."
The court heard that the Forresters had a "volatile and unstable marriage characterised by periods of separation and reconciliation".
Alex Lewis, prosecuting, said that while Forrester was in and out of work and cared little for family life, his wife took two jobs to make ends meet.
Her parents supported the pair financially and moved home closer to them to help their daughter.
Four days before the murder Forrester moved out of the family home to stay with his sister in Paddington. He repeatedly called home and threatened to kill her.
Ms Lewis said: "He was angry about an entry on Facebook he said made him look like a fool as she had advertised her marital status as single. He accused her of having an affair."
Forrester drove to Croydon armed with the knife and meat cleaver and forced the front door open. After neighbours called 999 he emerged from the house covered in blood and holding a carton of juice.
When the police arrived he held his arms out for handcuffs and told them: "Who called you? My wife is in there. I killed her."
Inside the house they found Mrs Forrester's body with a large wound in her neck. Two bannister rails had been broken off and there were clumps of long brown hair outside the bedroom.
She had multiple wounds to her neck and head and defence wounds to her arms showing she had fought to ward off the blows.
Forrester later handed detectives a prepared statement in which he said: "She forced me out of the family home and posted messages on the internet website telling everybody she had left me and was interested in meeting other men."
He went on: "The whole incident seemed a blur. I felt I was watching somebody else attacking Emma."
In an impact statement the victim's sister Eliza Rothery said the family had been devastated by the murder.
Peter Dahlsen, defending, said Forrester felt "a deeply held remorse".
October 14
Marble tablet in the Grand Hall , Central Criminal Court
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===================================================================
Ccc
Restoration of north west corner
The building was partially destroyed by enemy action
On the 10TH of may 1941
But the administration of justice within it continued
Fiat justitia ruat coelum
The restored n-w corner was opened
On the 14TH October 1952
BY
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAYOR
SIR LESLIE BOYCE, KBE
SHERIFFS..... SYDNEY HAROLD GILLETT, MC, ALDERMAN
Sidney joseph fox, cc
Recorder..... sir Gerald Dodson, kt
Chairman..... Alfred Samuel Henderson, ccc
City lands committee
City surveyor George holliday.
The tablet also commemorates the names of
Harry dart AND Harold sheehy
Members of staff who lost their lives in the
Faithful discharge of their duTIES
===============================================
=========================================
( Latin inscription: " Let justice be done, though the heavens should fall." ) October 10 13th JULY 1955:
Ruth Ellis hanged for killing lover
Convicted murderer Ruth Ellis has been hanged at Holloway Prison, London. Ellis was sentenced to death at the Old Bailey for shooting her lover, 25-year-old racing driver David Blakely, outside the Magdala public house in north London on Easter Sunday. Home Secretary Major Lloyd George rejected the final appeals to reprieve the 28-year-old former model and nightclub hostess last night.
PUBLIC SUPPORT
The Prison Governor at Holloway was forced to call for police reinforcements yesterday evening as a crowd of 500 massed outside the prison's gates singing and chanting for Ellis for several hours. Some people broke through police cordons to bang on the jail's doors, calling for Ellis to pray with them, but by 2330 BST the crowd had dispersed. Thousands of people have signed petitions asking for the death penalty to be lifted in this case, including 35 members of London County Council who delivered their plea to the House of Commons last night. The executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, arrived at the prison yesterday after travelling to the capital from Preston, Lancashire. A silent crowd - including women with prams - collected around Holloway this morning, waiting for the execution at 0900 BST. Eighteen minutes later, notice of Ellis' death was posted outside and the crowd surged forwards, blocking the road and stopping traffic.
LEGAL QUESTIONS
Yesterday, Ellis was visited by her mother, her solicitor J G Bickford and her friend, Jacqueline Dyer, within an hour of hearing there would be no reprieve. Her trial opened on 20 June and the jury took just 14 minutes to find her guilty of murder. She did not appeal against her conviction. The case has increased debate about British criminal justice and the death penalty. The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment has reported recently that the incidence of murder is not significantly greater in countries where the death penalty has been abolished.
CLICK HERE TO SEE RUTH ELLIS'S POST MORTEM REPORT
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In Context
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The trial and punishment of Ruth Ellis became notorious as she was the last woman in England to be executed.
The death penalty in the UK was suspended in 1965 and permanently removed in 1970.
Ruth Ellis' family campaigned for her murder conviction to be reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of provocation. Through the Criminal Cases Review Commission they brought the case to the Court of Appeal in September 2003.
They argued Ellis was suffering "battered woman syndrome". She had suffered a miscarriage just 10 days before the killing after David Blakely had punched her in the stomach.
But the appeal judges ruled she had been properly convicted of murder according to the law as it stood at the time. The defence of diminished responsibility did not then exist.
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CLICK ON > Appeal court judges have upheld the murder conviction of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
CLICK HERE FOR A List Of Executions at Newgate Prison , 1606 - 1895.
NEWGATE PRISON APPEARS A NUMBER OF TIMES IN LITERATURE
Executions at Tyburn
Executions at the permanent gallows at Tyburn , west of the city, were an enormously popular tourist attraction and created an instant celebrity of the condemned.
William Hogarth's depiction of the Idle 'Prentice Executed at Tyburn,( ABOVE ) part of a series called Industry and Idleness. In the right background can be seen the triple tree of Tyburn; each of its three horizontal beams could hang eight men at once. The hangman is seen casually smoking his pipe on one of these beams. The condemned is arriving in a cart, left midground, accompanied by his coffin and an exhortative preacher. In the foreground a poor woman, holding her baby, is selling what purports to be the condemned's dying speech.
For a gaoler's fee, the public could view the condemned the day before an execution and even be let into his cell at Newgate Prison.
In 1605, a wealthy merchant and tailor named Robert Dow bequethed 50 pounds to have a bell rung outside the cell of the condemned at midnight before an execution. The Bellman of St. Sepulchre (a clerk at the church) would recite the following while ringing a handbell:
All you that in the condemned hole do lie,
Prepare you for tomorrow you shall die;
Watch all and pray: the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty must appear;
Examine well yourselves in time repent,
That you may not to eternal flames be sent.
And when St. Sepulchre's Bell in the morning tolls
The Lord above have mercy on your soul.
The Procession
Early the following morning, the prisoner would be moved from Newgate Prison on a cart, often seated on his own coffin, with a prison chaplain. When the procession reached the steps of St. Sepulchre, the criminal would be given brightly colored nosegays by friends, the church bell would sound, and the clerk would chant, "You that are condemned to die, repent with lamentable tears; ask mercy of the Lord for the salvation of your souls." As the parade passed by, the clerk would tell the audience, "All good people, pray heartily unto God for these poor sinners who are now going to their death, for whom the great bell tolls." According to the popularity of the criminal, he could be pelted with rocks and other missiles or cheered along the two-hour trip to Tyburn.
Last Words
After drinking with the hangman at a tavern along the way and saying prayers with the chaplain, the condemned would arrive at the gallows with the expectation of a "last dying speech ," his final penitent words on the precipice of eternity. Not all prisoners were willing to follow the script due to claims of innocence, resentment of the spectacle, religious beliefs or complete inebriation. In any case, this was a high theatrical moment that many dramatists found too rich to overlook on the stage. Considering the popularity of the Tyburn spectacle and its cultural importance to Londoners, it is little wonder that Shakespeare makes a reference to hanging (literally or by the popular oath "go hang!") in almost all of his plays.
Emotions could run high at executions and sympathy was often stirred up in the crowd. There are instances of riots breaking out when surgeons tried to claim dead bodies after a hanging for purposes of dissection. In 1586, when the Babington conspirators were hanged, drawn, and quartered, there was such a public outcry concerning the barbarity of the procedure that the authorities decided only to hang the next seven the following day. Obviously, there were limits to the support that could be given by the public.
Reading an Execution
Execution was an aesthetic as well as emotional experience. The ars moriendi tradition enjoyed a strong revival under Elizabeth and the Stuarts; how one died was as important as how one lived. The execution ritual was an instrument of the state but was a highly personal statement for the individual as well. The public clambered for chapbooks containing accounts of the condemned's behavior and the wisdom of their last words. The executions scene, like plays, were "read" by audiences of the time and almost always moralized. Most accounts editorialize the final performance of the condemned as successful (died well) or disgraceful (died badly). Pamphlets recording "last dying speeches " were more a literary genre than a form of journalism and were so popular that they continued until the 18th century.
Glossary of Terms
The following is a list of common jargon surrounding execution in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
| BENEFIT OF CLERGY
| Clerks in holy orders where exempt from the jurisdiction of criminal courts; they could only be subject to the justice of ecclesiastical courts. This protection was later expanded to any male defendant who could read. If a prisoner could read the famous "neck verse" from the Bible (Psalm 51), he could avoid execution. Of course, many illiterate men memorized this passage to evade death. If a felon took this privilege or "benefit of clergy" once, his thumb was branded and he was denied its use in the future unless he was truly in a holy order. Offenses were later divided into clergyable and non-clergyable. The practice was removed in 1827.
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| BILBOES
| Fetters or stocks
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| CAGE
| A prison
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CHATS, CHEATS
also TRINING-CHEATS
| The gallows
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| CONDEMNED PROCESSION
| The journey to the gallows
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| CRACK-HEMP
| A gallows-bird
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| CUTTING DOWN
| When the executioner cut down the body
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| DANCE THE HEMPEN JIG
| A pirate's term for being hung
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| DEATH SPEECH
| The prisoner's last words
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| DERRICK
| Hangman; gallows. From the name of a Tyburn hangman (c. 1600). The first hangman at Tyburn was reported to be named Bull.
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| DONE
| "Done to death," put to death
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| THE FATAL TREE
| The gallows
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| FURCA (L.)
| Gallows
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| HALTER or TYBURN TIPPET
| The hangman's noose
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| LIMBO
| The holding cell for the condemned in Newgate Prison
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| MALEFACTOR
| The condemned prisoner; see John Taylor's verse for other possible nicknames
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| THE PARTING CUP
| As part of the procession to the gallows at Tyburn, the condemned would be allowed to stop at taverns along the way. Combined with the heavy drinking indulged in at Newgate Prison, many prisoners went to the gallows completely inebriated much to the consternation of the prison chaplain.
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| QUEER-KEN
| A prison house
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| QUEER-BIRD
| Jail-bird
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| THE FATAL TREE
| The gallows
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| TRINE
| To go; to hang
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TRINE TO THE
CHEATS
| To be hanged
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| TRINING
| Hanging
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| TURNED OFF
| The initiation of the hanging by the executioner. The cart on which a prisoner was standing would be driven away or the ladder he was standing on would be pushed away.
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TYBURN FAIR or
THE HANGING MATCH
| The day of execution
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| WESTWARD (TO BE CARRIED)
| To be taken to Tyburn gallows
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| WHITTINGTON
| Newgate Prison |
Entries have been compiled from Antony Babington's The English Bastille (1971), Thomas Harman's A Caveat for Common Cursitors (1566), E.D. Pendry's Elizabethan Prisons and Prison Scenes (1974), Gamini Salgado's The Elizabethan Underworld (1992), A.V. Judges' The Elizabethan Underworld (1965), and the plays of William Shakespeare.
Most of the following slang may be confined to the 18th century:
| CRAMP WORDS
| the sentence of death
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| A HANGING MATCH, COLLAR DAY, THE SHERIFF'S BALL, A HANGING FAIR, and PADDINGTON FAIR
| the day of a hanging
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| TO SWING, DANCE THE PADDINGTON FRISK, TO MORRIS, TO GO WEST, TO RIDE UP HOLBORN HILL, TO DANGLE IN THE SHERIFF'S PICTURE FRAME, or TO CRY COCKLES
| to hang
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| TO BE JAMMED, FRUMMAGEMMED, COLLARED, NOOZED, SCRAGGED, TWISTED, NUBBED, BACKED, STRETCHED, TRINED, CHEATED, CRAPPED, TUCKED UP, or TURNED OFF
| to be hanged
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| DIE GAME
| possibly a reference to "dying well" |
Compiled from Peter Linebaugh's article, "The Tyburn Riot Against the Surgeons," in Albion's Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England and The Newgate Calendar
CLICK HERE
FOR ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE NEWGATE CALENDAR
LONDON IN 1839
Prisons
There are nine prisons for the confinement of offenders within the metropolis. These are :
1. The Gaol of Newgate in the City of London
2. The Giltspur-Street Compter in the City of London
3. The Bridewell Prison in the City of London
4. The New Prison, Clerkenwell, Middlesex County Gaol
5. The Coldbath-fields, County House of Correction
6. The Westminster, County Bridewell
7. The Horsemonger Lane, Surrey County Gaol
8. The Borough Compter
9. The Penitentiary at Milbank.
The Gaol of Newgate is under the control of the Corporation of London, and is the principal prison appropriated to the reception of persons brought before the Central Criminal Court. This prison has at various times been stigmatised as one of the worst regulated in the kingdom, and although various reformations have been attempted, but little effectual good appears to have been thus accomplished. In the third Report of the Inspectors of Prisons, presented to Parliament in 1838, it is stated ' that this great metropolitan prison, while it continues in its present state, is a fruitful source of demoralization, and a standing reproach on the character of the Corporation of the City of London. ' The more heinous classes of offenders are placed in separate cells which are not warmed, have no privies, and are without stool or table, but in each of them is placed a Bible and a Prayer Book. The numbers of persons confined in this prison in the course of the year ending Michaelmas 1837, was 3,349, of whom 802 were females. The greatest number at any one time in that year was 342, of whom 123 females. The current expenses of the prison for the year amounted to £7,785, 15 shillings and 10 pence.
Old Towns is a resource of 19th century English historical data, extracted and digitized from articles written between 1833 and 1848 which were originally published in 'The Penny Magazine' by The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT A " TRIAL OF WILLIAM PENN " website
Newgate Prison Murder
Everyone knows Newgate Prison here in London is haunted. There were too many strange and unexplainable things that went on there. The rumor is that the ghost of Jack Shepherd haunts the Prison to this day even though it has been shut down.
I worked as a prison counselor for fifteen years at the prison, and the prisoners would have the strangest things to say about the ghosts. I knew half of the prisoners were just crazy to begin with, but there was this one prisoner who told me a story about something that had happened to a prisoner named Scott Williams before I came to work at the prison. His story chilled me to the bone.....
Late one night he was in his cell trying to sleep, but couldn't because it was raining. All he could focus on was the leak in his ceiling, and the sound when it hit the cold concrete floor every second. After a while, his eyes started to get heavy and he was almost asleep when he heard chains and heavy footsteps. He was wide awake when he heard that. He got up to look out his window, but didn't see a thing. He knew it couldn't be anybody inside the prison because they do not wear chains, and it was the middle of the night; all the prisoners were sleeping. He listened for the sound again, but didn't hear anything except for the rain dripping down from the ceiling. He went back to bed thinking that his mind was just playing tricks on him because he was tired.
The next day it was gloomy and wet from all the rain the town got the night before. He looked out his window into what the prisoners called "the cage." "The cage" was a small gated-in area between the prison and the Old Bailey courthouse which was also known as the "Dead Man's Walk." It also happened to be the location of the lime pits where the remains of executed prisoners were buried.
While Scott looked out his window between the bars he thought of all the prisoners that were executed and buried there. He knew that later that year he would be one of those prisoners buried in the lime pits.
Later that night, Scott was trying to fall asleep when it started to storm. The drip started. He then heard the chains and the footsteps that he heard the night before. He quickly got out of bed, and looked out his window into "the cage."
The other prisoners believe that he saw the ghost of the former prisoner Jack Shepherd who was hanged in 1974 after escaping custody three times for burglary and murder. All the prisoners had heard that he walked in "the cage" late at night as a lost soul, but no one had ever seen Jack.
The prisoners say he must have been Shepherd because Scott was found dead in his cell the next morning with chain marks on his throat. He had been strangled to death.
Bibliography:
The Institute of Paranormal Reseach (2005). Haunted London.
CLICK HERE FOR THE SHERIFFS' AND RECORDER'S FUND website.
USHISTORY.org
Penn's letters to his father while imprisoned in Newgate, 1670
Note: After a famous trial which established after appeal that verdicts of juries could not be nullified by the court, Penn was imprisoned in Newgate Prison for contempt of court (the jurors who had found him not guilty were also imprisoned). Here are letters Penn wrote his father while in prison. The main purpose of the letters appears to be to prevent his father from securing his release and the letters show that he was actively involved in an act of civil disobedience aimed at restoring the rights of Englishmen. A transcript of the trial is on-line at www.constitution.org. Amongst the comments of the court officials in the transcripts are favorable comments about the Spanish inquisition.
7th September, 1670
"Dear Father,
Because I cannot come, I write. These are to let thee know that this morning about seven we were remanded to the sessions. The jury, after two nights and two days being locked up, came down and offered their former verdict, but that being refused as not so positive, they explained themselves in answering, not guilty, upon which the bench were amazed, and the whole court satisfied, that they made a kind of hymn, but that the Mayor, Recorder Robinson, &c., might add to their malice, they fined us to the number of about twelve of us, for not pulling off our hats, and kept us prisoners for the money. An injurious trifle which will blow over, or we shall bring it to the common pleas, because it was against law, and not by a jury sessed.
How great a dissatisfaction three of their actions have begot, may very reasonably be conjectured from the bare mention of them. 1st That the jury was about six times rejected in their verdict; and besides, vain, fruitless, illegal menaces, were kept two days and two nights without bed, tobacco, provisions, &c. 2d. That a session should be held on first-day (the design we know.) 3d. That the jury, the only judges by law, should be fined 40 marks each, and to be prisoners till they have paid it, and that without any jury to pass upon them. However, their verdict is accepted for us, because they did not dare deny it.
This is the substance. The circumstances I shall personally relate, if the Lord will. I am more concerned at thy distemper, and the pains that attend it, than at my own mere imprisonment, which works for the best.
I am, dear father, thy obedient son,
WM. PENN
Newgate, 7th, 1670
"Dear Father: — I desire thee not to be troubled at my present confinement, I could scarce suffer on a better account, nor by a worse hand, and the will of God be done. It is more grievous and uneasy to me that thou shouldst be so heavily exercised, God Almighty knows, than any living worldly concernment. I am clear by the jury, and they in my place — they are resolved to lay until they get out by law; and they, every six hours, demand their freedom by advice of counsel.
They have so overshot themsleves (the court), that the generality of people much detest them. I intreat thee not to purchase my liberty. They will repent their proceedings. I am now a prisoner notoriously against law. I desire the Lord God, in fervent prayer, to strengthen and support thee, and anchor thy mind in the thoughts of the immuable blessed state, which is over all perishing concerns.
I am, dear father, thy obedient son,
WM. PENN
Newgate, 7th September, 1670
Dear Father: — To say I am truly grieved to hear of thy present illness, are words that might be spared, because I am confident they are better believed.
If God in his holy will did see it meet that I should be freed, I could heartily embrace it; yet considering I cannot be free, but upon such terms as strengthening their arbitrary and base proceedings, I shall rather choose to suffer any hardship.
I am persuaded some clearer way will suddenly be found out to obtain my liberty, which is no way so desirable to me, as on the account of being with thee. I am not without hopes that the Lord will sanctify the endeavours of thy physician unto a cure, and then much of my worldly solicitude will be at an end. My present restraint is so far from being humor, that I would rather perish than release myself by so indirect a course as to satiate their revengeful, avaricious appetites. The advantage of such a freedom would fall very short of the trouble of accepting it.
Solace thy mind in the thoughts of better things, dear father. Let not this wicked world disturb thy mind, and whatever shall come to pass, I hope in all conditions to approve myself thy obedient son.
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