A NATIONAL DISGRACE

Evening Star, Issue 17319, 6 April 1920, Page 6

A NATIONAL DISGRACE

STRONG COMMENT FROM THE BENCH. In a recent notorious case held at the Old Bailey, in which it was proved that one of the persons'convicted of illegal practices was the father of the woman who was operated on, and that he shared in the large fee paid to a bogus practitioner named Gardiner and his accomplices (Eassom and Tit-man), Mr Justice Darling, in charging the jury, was very outspoken in his comments on the nefarious conduct of the principal prisoners It was proved that certain pills that were ordered to be taken by Graham’s victims, and were sold to them at as high as £1 per box, cost only lOd to manufacture. His Honor went on to say: “ I am very glad that these cases, disgusting as they are, have been made so public. I am perfectly certain that there is a world of harm being done by a large number of people trading in these'things, and performing this kind of operation. I .am perfectly certain, from my own observation and judicial experience, as well as the large number of letters which people write to me whenever I have to try a case which involves these practices—l am perfectly certain that these practices are so rife tint j they are a grave. 1 and, since the war, j increasing danger to this country. ! there are those who write about what they j call race suicide. The term does not mati ter, but tie country which permits its population to be dealt with in this way is bound to decay. Referring to Gardiner, he continued: ‘‘l consider you fortunate in not being found guilty of murder. The law is plain, and I think it high time—when a man has killed a woman in such circumstances—a man who has practised operations over and over aeafn—that- such a man was convicted and hanged. You' have had a very narrow escape. If you bad been convicted of murder I would not have said a word to save you from the scaffold. Such offences as those of which prisoners had been found guilty rendered each one of them liable to penal servitude for life. That might surprite them, and a good many* people, and that was why he mentioned it in detail. 11 It has been proved in this case that thk practice has increased since j thy war, and I myself believe that the coni sciences of a great many people have been | deadened to the mischief, the crime, and the sn cf such practices. It has oom’e out !on the sworn testimony of Tit-man, erai ployed at the Army Pay Office at Winchester, where there are some hundreds o( young girls and young men working, that j a common subject of their conversation was how to procure a certain' result, and this case shows that it is perfectly true. - Very edifying proceednivs have been seen, because' these people fell mu as to how to divide the money, and a letter has been read showing the" father’s greed for more out of the money paid for his daughter’s dishonor. The advantage of this case is to make it thoroughly well known what is going on in our midst, and how widely prevalent this crime is.” Ha then passed sentence of 10 years’ penal servittlde on Gardiner, five years’ penal servitude on Eassom, and 18 months’ hard labor on Titman. Titman, ho declared, was deserving of very little sympathy, “You are only 21,” he added, “but I anx oonvinaed you are a thoroughly immoral and debauched young man. Vvhat harm you may have done m that gang of girls employed where you are .employed I do not know. I am sure that certainly in three or four cases you have been' the means of introducing such young women to these nefarious practices, and Eassom has told us that they came to the shop in their uniforms. Nothing but your youth prevents me sending you to penal servitude.” i Later Mr Justice Darling again referred to the case. He declared that it was’ necessary that the authorities should take action at the very root. It appeared from the exse that people were attracted by means of advertisements, and the prosecutions of 1899 shewed that the law could deal with such cases. “I am certain,” he added, " that the evil is no loss prevalent now than then, and I think it should be dealt with by the authorities. If -the law need< any kind of strengthening, I suggest- it should be in this form: that where people put in advertisements which are open to cue construction or another, or Bell medicine which may he open to the construction rhat it is -innocently sold, as well as So r improper purposes, the onus of proof that Iho advertisements were inserted or -the stuff sold innocently should be put on the person accused. There is plenty of precedent in our law fob that.” r