THE DEAN SENSATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9944, 7 October 1895, Page 5

THE DEAN SENSATION.

ASTOUNDING DEVELOPMENTS.

DEAN AND HIS SOLICITORS

ARRESTED.

CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY.

ALLEGED STATEMENT BY THE

CHEMIST.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. CRICK.

THREATENED REVELATIONS.

THE ARRESTS DENOUNCED AS A POLITICAL JOB. Prsss Association.—Electric Telegraph.— Copyrinlit. Sydney, October 5. A tremendous sensation was caused in the city this afternoon when the Dean case assumed another phase.

Mr. Meagher was arrested first.

Mr. Crick, his partner, went to the police station to bail him out, when he too was taken into custody.

Later on Dean was arrested, all three being charged on a warrant issued by the Crown with conspiring to defeat the ends of justice.

By half-past four p.m. all the accused were bailed, the amount of bail being fixed at £3000 each.

It is understood that the arrests eventuated through some communication made by Smith, chemist, to the Attorney-General, bub its purport is unknown, though ib is surmised that it sets at rest the question, " Where did the poison come from Mr. Crick, when interviewed after his release had very little to say, remarking that Mr. Want, the Attorney-General, had taken him away from some pieces of boiled fish to-day (referring to the facb that he was lunching at the time he heard the warrant was out), but "he will find me turned to shark before this is over ;" and added, "I have not taken "any action before, bub now will make revelations which will make those in high places sib up." He described the action of the Crown as a political job.

PURCHASE OP POISONS. ] ALLEGED CONFESSION OF A CHEMIST. DEAN SAID TO HAVE BOUGHT ARSENIC AND STRYCHNINE. MORE ARRESTS IMPENDING. Sunday Evening. There are no further developments in the Dean case, excepting that it has been ascertained beyond doubt that the Crown holds a statement on oath from a certain chemist that he supplied Dean with two different kinds of poison. The warrants were issued for the arrest of Meagher, Crick, and Dean at the instance of the Attorney-General. Dean, who appears quite unconcerned at the latest development, still maintains his innocence, and declares that he is nob afraid of the final result.

Truth, newspaper, publishes what ib states to be the substance of an alleged confession by Smith, the chemist. Ib is to the effect that shortly before Mrs. Dean's illness Dean came to his shop and obtained a quantity of both arsenic and strychnine, saying that he wanted to kill rats, and that he required both poisons to make short work of the vermin. As his assistant was out and there were no witnesses present, he at first demurred, but being struck by Dean's apparent truthful manner, ab lasb consented to give him the poisons asked for, bub did nob enter it in the poisons sale book. Dean, he says, had previously been three times in the shop, and gob prescriptions made up for his wife. In the light of subsequent developments Smith says he was afraid to confess, fearing the consequences of the neglecb of entering the sale of poisons in his books. Smith has refused to be interviewed. It was ascertained that ho was absent from home, though he will be in evidence when required as a Crown witness in connection wibh the case.

There is good authority for stating thab several more arrests will be made in the course of a day or two. Sir Julian Salomons, on being interviewed, said he had received a large number of letters since he made his statemenb, one containing information which led to the arrests yesterday, but ho declined ab present to divulge its nature.

THE ALLEGED CONFESSION.

The following is the written statement supplied by Sir Julian Salomons to Mr. Want), ■ Attorney-General, regarding the alleged confession of Dean. In reading it in the Legislative Council, Mr. Want said, " I am in possession of facts which I am nob at liberty to disclose, which justify me in saying that I absolutely believe every word which is written down here." The statement roads as follows:—The report of the Royal Commission on the Dean case was made on or about 28th June, 1895, and shortly afterwards Dean was set at liberty and received the Crown's pardon. 2. On 16th July Mr. Meagher, being then a Parliamentary candidate for the Phillip Division, the following paragraph appeared in the Daily Telegraph :— " Mr. Meagher, whose failure to expose the singularly weak case against George Dean pub the country to the expense of a Royal Commission, is trading at his meetings, etc. ..." 3. Two days afterwardsthat is, on 18th July, ab about four o'clock—Mr. Meagher came to my chambers and brought the abov6 paragraph, fastened in the usual way to a sheeb of brief paper, in order that I might write an opinion as to the paragraph was acbionable, that is a libel, upon him, ib was suggested, in his professional character as the solicitor who had conducted Dean's defence ab the police court, and subsequently on the trial of Dean ab Darlinghursb. Having read the paragraph, I ab once said— remarking that I was nob certain whether I did nob hold a general retainer for the Daily Telegraphthab even if ib were acbionable I did nob see how he could possibly recover any damages, having regard bo his position in insisting upon Dean's innocence. He thereupon said, "Bub Dean was in facb guilty, and I absolutely knowib." I replied that from the first time I had gone into the matter, as counsel for the Crown on the Royal Commission, I had never had the slightest doubb as bo D«an's guilt. "Bub what do you mean," I said, " by saying you know ib absolutely?" He (Mr. Meagher) then made the following statement:—That after Dean was convicted, and when Crick and Meagher, and through them the outside public, wore agitating bo get the Royal Commission, he (Mr. Meagher) was determined to find out whether Dean was really guilty or nob. That he therefore went to the gaol and saw Dean, and suddenly bold him, as a ruse, that the police had found out where he (»enn) had bought the poison ; that on this Dean burned very pale, aud almost fell off his seat, and, on recovering himself, asked Mr. Meagher, " Where do they say I bought the poison ?' That he (Mr. Meagher) replied, ."Oh, I don'b know that, they won't state ; bub you had batter tell us all about it." That Dean bhen, in answer to questions pub by Mr. Meagher, gave the name of the chemist where he had obtained the poison ; that) he used the two poisons, arsenic _ and strychnine, to make sure of getting rid of her ; that before the police arrested him he had taken the remains of the poisons out of his box and burned them in the fire; and that if the police had arrested him on Tuesday (? or Wednesday) they would have found the remains of the poisons in his box. I asked Mr. Meagher if the chemist mentioned by Dean had been examined as awitneas, and he said "Yes." "How bhen," I said, "could he ( j dare to swear that he had never sold any

poison to., Dean?" Mr. Meagher then informed me that before the hearing at the Police Court all the chemists who were witnesses had been previously examined by the police, when they stated that they had never sold Dean either arsenic or strychnine, and that consequently the chemist who had in fact sold the poison to Dean was | nob asked by the Crown, when in the witness-box, either at the police court or at Darling-hurst, whether he had sold poison to Dean the prisoner. I, on this, took from ene of the drawers of my desk a printed copy of the evidence given at thePolicaCourt, and at the trial. Mr. Meagher then pointed out to me, as the fact was, that neither at the Police Court, nor at Dnrlinghurst bad the chemist who in fact sold the poison, sworn he had not sold it, for, as appears by the evidence, he was never asked the question. It was then nearly dark, being after five o'clockaccording to a note I made when Mr. Meagher had left—and in order to get time to think quietly over these startling and sudden disclosures,! asked Mr. Meagher to see me the next day. Mr. Meagher did, in fact, call the next day, but I was oat—l believe in Court. On the following day, July 20, Mr. Meagher called again. 1 fe.ni nob sure whether I sent for him. Crick and Meagher's office is in the building next to my chambers, and I than brushed aside the question as to whether the paragraph in the Daily Telegraph was actionable or not. I pointed out to Mr. Meagher, among other matters, the unpleasant and embarrassing position he had placed me in, and I informed him that, for my own sake, I had in confidence told a member of the Bur what he had stated to me. I implored him by every solemn consideration, that I could think of bo let the public know that the wife was wholly innooent, and that Dean, though then at liberty, was wholly guilty. I pressed upon him, in the weightiest manner possible, to consider, apart from the awful injury to the wife, the serious and irreparable harm he was doing to the public confidence in the administration of justice. He expressed his sorrow for the position Mrs. Dean was in, as being no doubt thought by nearly everybody guilty of a conspiracy to bring her husband to the scaffold by a false charge. He said she was a simpleton, bub was no doubt perfectly innocenb and had told the truth. Mr. Meagher voluntered to join in aiding her pecuniarily to relieve her from the extreme poverty she was in. I pointed out to him that her poverty was a small consideration, and that he must in some way let the public know that she had been wrongly accused, and that Dean had been properly found guilty by the jury. I advised him to see if he could not, without injury to himself or Mr. Crickto whom he had immediately, alter Mr. Crick's speech in the _ Assembly, communicated Dean's confession - undo the wrong that had been done, and force Dean, who had now a full pardon, to confess his guilt, though as a consequence he might have to leave the country. Mr. Meagher thanked me for my advice, and said he would carefully consider it and see me again. Mr. Meagher did shortly afterwards see me again—how many days after I do nob remember—and then pub before me certain matters thab had appeared in the public papers in connection with his action in the matter of Dean's guilt or innocence, as making ib impossible for him to adopt the course I had pressed upon him. Bub on my renewing my entreaties, and strongly Stating to him every consideration that I thought weigh with him, he said he would think the matter further over and see me the next day. I told him he had better take three or four days before coming to a final conclusion, and then see me again. Mr. Meagher has never since spoken to me on the matter except to casually say to me in the street— the door of Denman Chambers—that he did not intend to proceed against the Daily Telegraph, and soon after that a clerk from Messrs. Crick and Meagher called and obtained from my office boy the •papers' left with me by Mr. Meagher on his first visit. When I became absolutely certain that Mr. Meagher would do nothing I communicated the whole matter to the Attorney-General.— E. Salomons, Denman Chambers, 29th September, 1895."