REMARKABLE PROOF OF INNOCENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7170, 8 November 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

REMARKABLE PROOF OF INNOCENCE.

The innocence of a suspected person has jail; been proved in a remarkable manner. About nine months ago a domestic servant named Ellen Ryder was charged, at Bnfield, with stealing a watch which had been entrusted to her by a fellow-servant to get repaired. Ryder's statement was that she took the watch, enclosed in a small box, to the Enfield Post-office, and wished to register it, the wrapper being properly addressed ; that she was told by two young men who had the care of the office that there was no need for registering, and that she must take the parcel outside and post it in the usual way. She did so ; but the packet never reaohed its destination. The magistrates, while placing little faith in her explanation, did not consider the evidence of stealing sufficient, and she was dismissed, bat she has been suspected ever since and unable to obtain employment. At the last sessions of the Central Criminal Court, William Eley, aged IS, and John Michael Walsh, 21, the two persons who were on duty at the post-office on the day when the young woman stated she posted the watch, were found guilty of stealing letters containing money and other property. Eley was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment, and Walsh, who was the instigator of the robberies, to five years' penal servitude. Amongst the articles traced to the possession of the prisoner was the watch that Ryder was charged with stealing. The' fact was brought to the knowledge of the Bnfield Justices, and at the sitting of the Court the Chairman of the bench* publicly announced that the innocence, of the girl had been fully established.