CONSPIRACY ALLEGED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 March 1925, Page 5

CONSPIRACY ALLEGED.

MOST AMAZING CASE. ANOTHER SOCIETY SENSATION. Press Association—Electric Telegraph—Copyrigl. (Received Thursday, 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, Wednesday. One of the most amazing cases for many years opened before Judge Shearman and a special jury after the failure of attempts, made at the Judge’s suggestion to reach a settlement. Counsel explained that Mrs 'Muriel Waterhouse, as executrix of her late husband, whom she married in 1919, was proceeding against Sir David Wilson Barker, ex-captain in tho Naval Reserve, his wife, and a man named Sheldon, nil of Hawk-hurst, Trent, alleging that Lady Wilson Barker obtained from Mr Waterhouse large sums by means of fraudulent representation, and that Sheldon and Lady Wilson Barker participated in a fraudulent conspiracy for the same purpose; plaintiff seeks an account for these payments, or, alternatively, damages. Plaintiff's counsel'.said that the conspiracy began in 1909. Frank Waterhouse the son of wealthy parents, had inherited £109,000. When staying at Ifnrrowgate with his mother in IS9G, when lie was forty, he made the acquaintance of Lady Wilson Barker, who gained (Mrs Waterhouse's deep .affection. She won the ascendancy over the doting mother and her son, and became a frequent visitor to the Waterhouse’s home. For years the two women carried on correspondence of a deeply religious character. Nevertheless, counsel alleged that Lady Wilson Barker carried on an intrigue -with Frank Waterhouse. Then, subsequently, with Sheldon ’» assistance, she stripped Frank Waterhouse -of every farthing, with tlie result that he died in 1922 insolvent. The conspiracy was only discovered after Waterhouse’s death. Lady Wilson Barker pretended that a solicitor, who had discovered their liason, "was threatening to tell her husband, and that only secret payments could prevent exposure. She imposed on Frank Waterhouse; an oath of secrecy, and then ostensibly, to buy the threatener’s silence, obtained large sums from Waterhouse, sometimes £2OOO at a. time. All the amounts were paid in bank notes. Frank Waterhouse was n man of weak character, and. he later became an invalid.

Counsel said tha/t 'lleilber.t Water-* house would give evidence that Sheldon came .to him as the head of the Waterhouse family and said that the origin of the trouble was (Mrs Waterhouse, who made both her sons promise to give Lady Wilson Barker £4OOO each after her death. They had not carried out the promise. Lady Wilson Barker and Sheldon considered other means of. obtaining the £BOOO. Sheldon helped to compose some of her letters. They obtained much more than £BOOO. When the claim was first made against Lady Wilson Barker she obtained a certificate that she was in a state of enfeeblement bordering on lunacy. She deceived another doctor into certifying her its mentally not normal. She also deceived her own solicitor, yet, when watched by enquiry agents, it was found that she was following the norma! occupations of a lady. —Aus. and N.Z. Gable Assn.