THE ADAMS CONSPIRACY CASE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 964, 27 November 1882, Page 3

THE ADAMS CONSPIRACY CASE.

The Conviction Quashed. (PER PRESS.ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Nov, 27. At the appeal court to-day judgment was given in the Adams conspiracy case. Judge Johnston said the case was one of great Importance and came before the Court under embarrassing circumstances. As the jury found the defendants guilty, their honors were bound to assume for the purposes of this case that the charge against Longhurst, was a false one, and moreover that the circumstances proved were sufficient to prove the charge of conspiracy if the girl-had arrived at a legal age of ; The specific question reserved for the Court of Appeal to determine was whether the learned Judge ought not to have directed the acquittal of both defendants on the ground that the child was in law incapable of conspiring as alleged in the fiist count of the indictment. He held that it was repulsive to common sense to believe that the child conspired confederated and combined with her father to commit the crime and be was therefore of opinion on the whole, that there was no evidence incorporated in the case reserved ' which satisfied the requirements of the law. Regarding the rebuttal of the prima facie presumption of innocence which applied to children between the ages of 7 and 14, he thought the learned judge ought to have told the jury that there was no such evidence before them as would justify them according to law in finding that the prima facie presumption of innocence must be rebutted. Accordingly the conviction ought to be quashed. Judges Gillies and Williams were also of opinion that the child was incapable of conspiring, and that the Judge should have directed an acquittal of both prisoners. The cdnviction was thereupon quashed, and this brought the Crown cases reserved to a conclusion.