THE "UNCLE JOE* DIVORCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12272, 16 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE "UNCLE JOE* DIVORCE.

YOUNG DETECTIVE'S CONFESSION

OF FALSE EVIDENCE. An extraordinary story was told in the Extradition Court at Bow-street on April 9 by Herbert Cochrane, the youthful private detective who alleges that the evidence given by Henry F. George and himself in the Worsiey divorce case last November was false.

George is a private detective, of Flixton, near Manchester, and he was engaged by Mr. John Worsley to watch his wife and his uncle, Mr. Joseph Worsiey, a cotton-waste merchant, of Manchester. In the Divorce Court George and Cochrane gave an account of how they alleged they " shadowed" Mrs. Worsiey and "Uncle Joe" and witnessed misconduct, and the jury awarded Mr. John Worsiey £1500 damages against his uncle, a decree nisi being granted. Mr. Joseph Worsiey, who is appealing for a new trial, is now charging George with perjury and subornation of perjury. Cochrane, who is a nervous young man of twenty years of age, went in detail through the account which he gave in the Divorce Court of the " shadowing" at Clifton Junction on the night of June 17, 1901, and pointed out what he asserts to be the falsehoods in it. He said that they did not follow "Uncle Joe" and his neice all the way, as they toad said, but lost sight of them for some* time through taking tie wrong road. George said, " Cochrane, we ought to have done better than this," and they made their way straight to Mr. John Worsley's house, where they found that "Uncle Joe" and his neice had already arrived. They waited outside the house for some minutes, and Mr. John Worsiey came out. George then gave him a false account of what had happened. Cochrane followed George in the witnessbox and told a false story. He remained ill George's employment until December, when he was last one morning at the office and George offered him the alternative of leaving or of signing an agreement to forfeit his salary, which was in arrears. He left, and George still owed him eight guineas. Mr. Fen wick remanded the prisoner.