THE WAKEFORD SENSATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2270, 30 April 1921, Page 4

THE WAKEFORD SENSATION.

ARCIIDEACOX’S APPEAL DISMISSED. Loudon, April 2(5. The Privy Council lias dismissed Archdeacon Wakeford's appeal witlj costs. The Lord Chancellor read one ol' the longest judgments on record, covering thirty-four closely printed pages, occupying over ninety minutes. He said there was 'not a scrap of evidence to support the theory of conspiracy which was set up during the hearing of the appeal. EXTRAORDINARY SCENES. \ London, April IS. ‘ Extraordinary scenes were witnessed to-day during the closing stages of the Wakeford case. A crowd, chiefly of well-dressed women, beseiged the entrance to the Courtroom, and wildly struggled for admission. The evidence during the past hearings has been most conflicting' and bewildering. Sir Edward Carson, K.C., for the defence, to-day, in an eloquent final address, dissected the prosecution’s evidence with a view to show that many of the witness’ statements were mendacious and otherwise entirely untrustworthy. lie submitted that the hotel books were dishonest, and declared that the alleged woman with Archdeacon Wakeford was a myth. “If the prosecution's case "be true," he said, “and jf an Archdeacon, in full ecclesiastical dress and gaiters, went twice to an hotel at Peterborough with a young woman, who was not his wife, then lie's mad. If is an utter improbable story.” The prosecution produced new witnesses who saw the Archdeacon and the woman together on the days' in question, but Sir Edward Carson demanded tlie production of “this mystery woman,” and declared that the charge was the result of a conspiracy by bis fellow-clergymen.

Archdeacon Wakeford, precentor of Lincoln University, was deprived of his beuelieios by the Consistory Court at Lincoln on a charge of misconduct, witnesses alleging that he had been seen at an hotel at Peterborough with a woman who was not his wife. Two of his brothers-in-law, who were also clerics, were (he principal witnesses against him. He immediately’prepared an appeal to the Privy Council with the assistance of his wife, and offers of help and money poured in from all parts of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council granted leave to appeal on the ground that the judgment of the Lincoln Court was not in accordance with the facts, and also that fresh evidence had been discovered.