THE PACE CASE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 240, 11 July 1928, Page 11

THE PACE CASE

WAS TRIAL WARRANTED BY EVIDENCE? QUESTION OF PAYING COMPENSATION (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) Loudon, July 9. In the House of Commons, Mr. A. A. Purcell, M.P. (Lab.) for the Forest of Dean, ' inquired whether the Government would consider the payment of compensation to Mrs. Pace, and hold an inquiry into the position and powers of Coroners and into the question of providing, the fullest and best legal defence for poor persons arraigned on capital charges. The Attorney-General, Sir Thomas Inskip, said that the latter suggestion would be considered by the, proper authorities. Regarding compensation, Mrs. Pace was acquitted after a careful and admittedly fair trial. There was no departure from the ordinary course of the administration of justice. Therefore, it would be undesirable to entertain a proposal for compensation. Mr. Purcell: Is there really no sense of decency on the, part of the Crown? Won’t you examine the depositions to see whether Mrsi Pace ought to have been proceeded against? Sir Thomas Inskip replied that he would certainly examine the depositions and consider carefully, all the suggestions, including expunging the verdict against Mrs. Pace from the Coroner’s records.

[At the trial, after hearing the case for the prosecution, the Judge ruled that there' was no ease to-go 'to the 1 jury and acquitted Mrs. Pace of the charge of the murder of her husband by poisoning./ The partie l ' lived on a popr farm in the Forest of Dean district, and, when Pace died in January suspicion 'fell on Mrs. Pace. The Coroner’s verdict, after a lengthy inquiry, was one of murder, and the full proceedings tip to the trial occupied six months, during which Mrs. Pace, with a young family, including a baby in arms, went through a terrible ordeal, atousiug the sympathy of the public. There was every evidence that Pace had threatened to poison himself, and that his wife had done her.best to save his life.]