AMAZING PRISON DRAMA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17889, 17 September 1921, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMAZING PRISON DRAMA.

- 'SNfto'oENT. WOMAK WKIONGEO.I > MKi3IRIttAGB 0¥ JUSTICE. "An extraordinary miscarriage of justice, recalling -the cam,id Adolf Bode, but said fey the most tfttninent lawyers to be absolutely without precedent, was righted by mi London Court of Criminal Appeal when Mrs. Kose Emma Gooding, of Little; Hampton, twice sentenced for criminal libel, was declared to bo wholly Imiooeat. The story of Mr». Gooding's case is as follows :— In December, 1920, ah* was prosecuted at Lewes Assizes by Miss Swann f a neighbour, and sentenced to ten days' imprisonment In March,, IS2I, she was again prosecutor', by Miss Swann, and sentenced 10 12 months' imprisonment. In the fol lowing month, Mr*. - Gooding unsuccessfully appealed against the sentence. Finally, the case was reopened by the Home Secretary, following inquiry by the polios, pad the convictions were quashed. Mrs .Gooding's innocence was established by a famous detective inspector, and was announced in court by Mr. Travera Humphreys, the Crown coan&nl. It is understood that the question of compensation is being; considered by the Home Secre-

tary. In all Mrs. Gooding spent more than five months in prison. Two Imprisonments. Mrs. Gooding was tried last December at the Lewes Assizes, before Mr. Justice Roche, on the charge of sending defamatory and scandalous postcards and letters concerning Miss Edith Emily Swann, h<sr next door neighbour at Littlebampton, ' A verdict of guilty was returned by the jury, and the judge, in passing sentence of ten days' imprisonment, said that he quite agreed with the finding, , " Miss Swum must bs protected," he stated. " The testimony shows that Mrs. Gooding seat the postcards." The second trial, in March, was taken by Mr. I "Justice Avory. The charge against Mrs. Gooding was identical with that on the former occasion. Witnesses testified thai they had heard Mrs. Gooding make use of the same expressions as were written in the letters and postcards received by Miss Swann. The. communications were said to have been signed with Mrs. Gooding's initials, and in some cases with her full name. One of the phrases used in the communications was, " Yon carry on with old —- while hie wife sa in hospital." Another -was, " I hojpe yon will get all the bad lack you deserve in (the, next year for getting me sent to. prison.** « Mr. Justice Avory, after th« jury had' returned a verdict of guilty, said to Mrs. Gooding: "The lenient course" adopted with you in December was evidently misplaced. You must be p&vented. for some time /rem continuing. tins < abominable persecution of Miss Swawn-" * Mrs. Gooding's Story. Mrs. Gooding returnee'! to her home from Portsmouth gaol, where she had been imprisoned, and was mU by her husband and sister. ". ''" * '"I shall Dot fee happy until I-find; the guilty person," she said. "I have always protested* my innocence, and. I was certain that I could, never complete my sentence. H " Had I not been released I must aayej died. I am sore I could never have ex-i, sstad until January. I van. only say bow grate! lam to . thosa who -nave been responsible fox- my liberty. ." Detective-Inspector iJicholls %as dona all 'that other people found impossible. I do hope that he will be abb.) to find out who sent those cards. " I have nothing font -praise for the way I vfus. treated ii the prison at Portsmouth. They have been. kind to me,..bat it -was terrible to know that I was innocent and yet kept behind stone walls and barred ■windows." "" .