A DISGRACED NOBLEMAN. Lord St. Leonards Convicted of Assaulting a Servant.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 57, 5 July 1884, Page 6

A DISGRACED NOBLEMAN. Lord St. Leonards Convicted of Assaulting a Servant.

London, May 23rd. — Lord St. Leonards was placed on trial to-day at Middlesex Sessions, Clerkenvvell, on the charge of criminally assaulting Miss Emma Colo, a pretty young woman employed as a servant by Mr Crawford, at whoso house Ills Lordship was a guest. Sir Thomas Chambers, member of Parliament for Marylebone and Recorder of the city of London, presided at the trial. On the bench beside him sat half-a-dozen young noblemen, and the court-room was thronged with representatives of the fashionable world. A number of ladies drove in their carriages to Clerkenwell, and those who were denied admission expressed great indignation. The complainant testified in detail to the ciicumstances of the assault. She opened the door for the prisoner, she said, in answering to hi& ring at the bell. Having admitted him, she returned to the room irom which she had come, and was about to resume her work when she heard the door close. Turning, she saw that Lord St. Leonards had followed her, and had shut the door behind him. He immediately seized her, and held his handkerchief over her mouth to stifle her cries. Although she resisted to the utmost he overcame her. His Lordship, she added, was evidently under the influence of liquor. No real attempt was made to gainsay the truth of her statement. The defence saw that such an effort would be hopeless, and confined itself mainly to endeavouring to weaken the force of her evidence by attacking her character. On cross-examination, Miss Cole said that she had been two weeks employed in her present situation when the assault was made. Previous to that time she had been unemployed for eight months. She admitted that she had remained out ono night, but said she had stayed with some friends, and not at a house of questionablo repute. In answer to further questions, she said that some time ago she had been guilty of certain indiscretions, but since then sho had lod a moral and Christian life. Edward George Clark, Queen's counsel, one of the leaders of tho English criminal Bar, acted as advocate for the baron. In his address to tho jury ho spoko of the distinguished ancestry of the prisoner and of his honourable name. The lattor allusion proved unfortunate, however, as it only served to provoke a burst of derisive laughter from many of those present who wore acquainted with his Lordship's real record. The Kecordor sternly suppressed tho merriment, and threatened to clear the Court if it was renewed.

The jury was absent but a few minutes, and returned with a verdict of guilty as indicted. No recommendation to mercy accompanied , the verdict. Although no other result could have been anticipated, both Lord St. Leonards and his brother, Walter Sugden, were visibly affected, and it was expected that sentence would at once be imposed, but in this the spectators were disappointed, as the Recorder remanded the prisoner and announced that sentence would not bo pronounced until the June session of the Court.