Diss Family History Group

PEASENHALL TRAGEDY.

THE RE-TRIAL OF GARDINER.

THIRD DAY.

SPEECH FOR THE DEFENCE

The third day of the re-trial at Ipswich Assizes of William Gardiner, accused of the murder at Peasenhall of Rose Harsent, a domestic servant, was entered upon this morning.

The case for the prosecution practically closed on Thursday, and the chief feature of the proceedings in the afternoon of that day was the evidence of the youth Frederick Davis, who said he sent to the dead girl a number of letters of an improper nature, and who, as at the previous trial, underwent the ordeal of a severe cross-examination. His evidence, however, did not throw any fresh light on the case. There was considerable testimony with regard to handwriting, called with a view to prove prisoner wrote the incriminating letter which forms so important a link in the chain of the evidence. Gardiner throughout the hearing preserved a stolid, unmoved demeanour. Another feature of Thursday’s hearing was the production of three unsigned documents, which seemed to purport to be confessions of the crime. The longest and most detailed of these was sent to a local newspaper, appeared to come from Burton-on-Trent, and said the cause of the murder was jealousy. Another was found in a pocket-book picked up in Devonshire. The third was addressed from London to a Peasenhall policeman. All three were illiterate and ambiguous compositions. An interested spectator of the proceedings was the well-known playwright, Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, who sat next to the Clerk of the Arraigns. Mr. Dickens, K.C., and the Hon. John de Grey appeared for the Treasury, and Mr. Ernest E. Wild and Mr. H. Claughton Scott for the defence.

The Court was crowded at an unusually early hour this morning, the reading of the three anonymous letters, purporting to confess the murder, having increased the already great interest in the trial.

After formal evidence concerning the handwriting of the letter written by Gardiner, Mr. Dickens announced that that closed the case for the prosecution.

MR. WILD’S SPEECH FOR THE DEFENCE.

Mr. Wild then commenced his opening speech for the defence. He pointed out that Gardiner had been in confinement since June 3rd. He might have asked immunity from the ordeal of a second cross-examination, but Gardiner would go into the witness box at the proper time. No breath of scandal crossed prisoner’s name until the two village “louts,” Skinner and Wright, saw him and the girl enter the chapel, and imagined that something immoral would happen.

Mr. Wild’s speech lasted two hours and a half. He concluded by saying that Gardiner believed the Lord was on his side, and he (counsel) believed with him that in the end his innocence would be shown.

Prisoner’s wife said she had been on friendly terms with the deceased girl. On the night of the murder she and her husband went into Dickinson’s, next door, after supper, and stayed till half-past one.

Witness said that she gave the medicine bottle to Rose Harsent, who took it away with her.

When Mrs. Gardiner left the box she fainted, and there was a painful scene in the lobby. She was not able to be re-examined.

ACCUSED GIVES EVIDENCE.

Prisoner then went into the witness-box. He denied going into the chapel with Rose Harsent as alleged. He merely went at her request to attend to the latch.

(Proceeding.)