A CHARGE OF EXTORTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8986, 25 February 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CHARGE OF EXTORTION.

A MARRIED LADY INFATUATED WITH A SINGER.

Ox Jan. 3 Henry Thomas Weir, also known as Harry Graham, a professional singer, was charged, on remand, at- oolwich Police Court, with attempting to obtain £50 by threats from Elizabeth Turner, a young married lady, residing with her husband at, 3, North-bank, Regent's Park. Mr. St. John Wontner prosecuted, and Mr. Hughes, M.P., defended. Before proceeding with the evidence, Mr. Wontner said that the published letter from the prisoner in which he addressed the prosecutrix as " Dearest Lily, might lead the public to suppose that the parties were on familiar terms, but if the whole of the correspondence could be published, it would put, an entirely different complexion upon the case. Mr. Henry John Turner, husband of the prosecutrix, said that in January his wife made a communication to him respecting the prisoner, and showed him two letters.

AT HIS DICTATION. _ By his direction, and at his dictation, she "wrote to the prisoner the letter produced, addressing him as " Dear Harry," and asking what amount would satisfy him for the present. She gave him the prisoner s reply and the anonymous letter produced, containing certain allegations and menaces, and then "he went to his solicitor.

In reply to Mr. Hughes, the witness denied that he had been to Germany or on the Continent without his wife. He took her abroad with him in I:>S4. During the last three years he might have been away from her several times for a fortnight or so.

Mrs. Turner, the prosecutrix, was then recalled for cross-examination, and Mr. Hughes applied to have the other witnesses sent out of court, intimating that he wished to spare the feelings of the lady's husband. Mr. Turner, however, said that he would prefer to remain, and the application was not pressed. Mr. Wontner said ho annoymous letter which contained the menaces contained also certain allegations against Mrs. Turner, and he would ask her if there was any truth in them. Witness: None whatever, WIIERK THEY MET. In her cross-examination, Mrs. Turner said : During the three years in which I haveknown liarry Graham 1 have frequently been with him in the street, but 1 have never had any reason to suspect that we were watched or followed. At first we met at the Music Rooms in Newman-street, where I went to hear him sing, but the room was not comfortable, having about eight pianos in it, and on the la<t occasion we met there I believe there was only one chair. After that we met at a house close to London Bridge, and 1 always went by omnibus. Graham would be waiting there for me, see me from the window, come to the door, and take me inside. Sometimes the rendezvous would be at the place where the omnibus stopj>ed, and the prisoner would meet me there, when we would walk to the house together. The prisoner did not tell me anything about his having paid a man to keep silent until Sunday, December 4. When he came to me and said that he had given the man all the money he could, he then said that this man had watched us to the room at Newman and I understood him to say London Bridge also, and that he had walked by the window. He said that the man had insinuated all sorts of things, but I do not know whether or not I believed him. I did not think much about it.

Then why did you say in your letter that you were anxious ? I wrote at my husband's dictation, and for the same reason I addressed the letter from Kelly's Library, Vigo-strcet. I do not think the prisoner knew my present address, where we have been nine months. Our previous residence was at Priory Road, and he knew that.

A 1.1. I.KTTKIiS DESTKOYtD.

Have you destroyed all letters? Yes, all of them, and I asked him to destroy mine. Did you ever meet him at a place in Gerard-street? No.

Have you been to places of amusement with him? Once to the Lyceum. We went in my carriage, and my cousin, a young lady went with u«. 1 paid for all, and we sat in the stalls. I have no recollection of going with him to the opera without my cousin, and riding home in a cab. My husband was away from home when I went to the Lyceum, and we were then living in Priory Road. I think I remember going to another theatre with the prisoner 1 have given him money, £32 in ail, whe.i he told me he was in trouble through being security for a friend. My husband has never gone abroad and left me at home. I have given the prisoner as much as £.3 to pay foi the room where we met. It had a piano in it. It was owing to hi.-, singing in the church I attended that 1 first made his acquaintance, and he afterwards sang at another church in Bavsv.ater.

Mr. Wontner: Do you positively deny that any impropriety has taken place ? Most positively. Mr. Marsham said lie regarded the case as too serious for bail, and committed the accused for trial at the Central Criminal Court on January 9.