THE COLCHESTER CASE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4261, 22 January 1901, Page 2

THE COLCHESTER CASE.

SUPREME COURT PROCEEDINGS In Chambers at the Supreme Coui'lj yesterday, Mr Justice Edwards heard a motion with reference to the man Charles Lilleywhite, who is charged with having committodJ the Colchester murder. ■ s ' Mr Skerrctt moved for a rule calling on the gaoler of the Terrace Gaol to show cause .why a writ of habeas corpus should 1 .not issue for the discharge of Charles .Lilleywhite, a prisoner detained in that gaol under a warrant or commitment issued pursuant to Imperial Act intituled ■ the. Fugitive Offenders Act, 1381, to await his return to, England to answer a charge of having murdered Alfred Welch at Colchester, England!, on the 9th December, 1893; and why, if the rule nisi should he made absolute, Lilleywhite should not, he discharged without the writ actually issuing or the body of Lilleywhite being brought into Court. The motion, which was ex parte, warsupported by affidavits. The grounds of the motion were, substantially, that the depositions taken before the Coroner at Colchester, at the inquest on (be body of: Alfred Welch, the murdered man, -were not depositions under the Fugitive Offenders Act, and that there was no sufficient evidence of identity to justify the committal of Lilleywhite to England. His Honor granted the rule nisi. The rule was made returnable on the Ist February, so that it may be taken \ before the Chief Justice and Mr Justice Edwards.