SLANDER ALLEGED

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11653, 18 October 1923, Page 5

SLANDER ALLEGED

CLERGYMAN’S ACTION £ ‘l HAVE TRACED HIM TO HOTELS WITH WOMEN.” THE WAKEFORD CASE. 3y Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Associaf'.on. (Received October 17, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, October 16. Before Mr Justice a special jury, ex-Arehdeacon Wakeford today sued Henry Wright, managing clerk to the solicitors employed by the Bishop of Lincoln in the recent proceedings in the Consistory Court, for damages for alleged slander. It is alleged that Wright paid to a clergyman : “I know John "Wakeford is guilty. I have myself traced him to various hotels with women.” Wright is also alleged to have said on another occasion: “Wakeford is a very nice fellow, if he would only keep the Seventh Commandment.” Defendant denied the slander, and pleaded that his remark was bona fide fair comment, made without malice. MISSING WITNESS. Tlie Venerable Archdeacon Wakeford was convicted by an Episcopal Court in February of 1921 on a charge of having committed adultery. The evidence of a hotelkeeper was to the effect that Wakeford stayed, under an assumed name, with a woman at tho hotel, and that they signed the register as man and wife. According to Wakeford, he showed a girl over Peterborough Cathedral on one of the days when, according to the evidence, he was staying at the hotel.

Wakeford’s appeal was dismissed, hut his case has been kept alive by his supporters, who formed a committee for the purpose of clearing his honour. Last February the committee announced that the girl to whom Wakeford referred had been found, and would give evidence.