BACK TO WORLD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 43, 20 January 1936, Page 4

BACK TO WORLD

DORIEN DEANE RELEASED. DANCED NIGHTLY IN CELL. Convict No. 711 danced every night in liis Parlchurst prison cell while serving six years’ penal servitude. Now he is planning to dance his way back into the hearts of the public. Recently a London solicitor and liis wife drove up to the prison gates. Convict 711 changed into civilian clothes, shook hands with the governor, and .joined them. Dorien Deane, professional dancer, had returned to the world and to the friends who believed in his innocence.

“Most people would say it was impossible for me to stage a comeback to the theatre,” he said wistfully. “But I am going to try. I am buoyed up \ the belief that I was wrongfully convicted. My real name is Alexander Henry. In 1929 an Old Bailey jury found me guilty of forging two wills. They were the wills of the late Mr Charles E. Sparke, of the Castle, Bury St. Edmunds. He was' a solicitor and under-sheriff of Suffolk. Mr Sparke, a bachelor, adopted me when I was a child. He treated me like a son all his life. He sent me to Italy to study singing under the masters. He had me taught to dance by the finest teachers of ballet and acrobatic danc”lg' NEVER LACKED MONEY.

“Mr Sparke died in 1927. His will was proved. I was told that lie had left me £IO,OOO. Naturally I was pleased, though I had been given reason to think that he would leave me liis entire estate. Two years later I found in one of his old attache eases a holograph will entirely in my favour. There was also a draft will on the same lines. These two wills left me a fortune of £230,000.

“I produced them, and they were shown to handwriting experts. I was warned that there were doubts about their being genuine. I was told tliat if I filed the wills criminal proceedings might follow. Because I,knew that they were genuine I went ahead. Was that the action of a guilty mail ? I was tried and sentenced to penal servitude. When they took me to prison I nearly lost my reason. My hair went white— I have dyed it since I came out-—with the horror that I, an innocent man, should he condemned for a crime 1 had not committed. KEEPING FIT IN CELL.

“Then I had an idea. Why not keep fit so that when at last I was freed I would still be able to do my old difficut dances? Each night in my cell I did rigorous exercises to keep my muscles supple. In the confined space I practised steps. Nobody else in the prison knew of my two ambitions—to prove my innocence and to get back to the stage. They would have laughed if they had known. “By the approved will of my father —as* I always knew Mr Sparke—l have the residue of liis £IO,OOO legacy that brings me about £450 a year. I am not a poor man, you see. Many people are not so well off as I am. But until I have achieved my two ambitions I shall not rest content.”