THE CASS CASE. ACQUITTAL OF CONSTABLE ENDACOTT. STRANGE REVELATIONS. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. ) London, November 2.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 234, 24 December 1887, Page 3

THE CASS CASE.

ACQUITTAL OF CONSTABLE ENDACOTT. STRANGE REVELATIONS. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. ) London, November 2.

When" writing to you about the Cass case several weeks ago, 1 ventured to predict that the trial of Endacott for perjury would fc hrow some new and possibly unexpected lights on the affair. 1 don't know why, but I have never from the first been able to accept the popular opinion about the fair heroine. London policemen are sometimes queer fellows, but, till this affair, no one ever heard of one molesting a quiet, modest girl, walking quickly about her business, as Miss Cass says she was. We know now Miss Cass was quite capable of "larking" in the streets of Stockton, and if in Stockton why not in London ? At any rate, the young lady can no longer pose as a grossly-injured innocent. We have learned to know her in the witness-box as she really is, and a very indiscreet, not to say skittish, damsel she appears, to be. People are wondering now why Miss Cass prosecuted Endacott. They forget she had no option. Mr Stead agitated and agitated till the Government were driven to take up the case. If Miss Cass had refused to prosecute, the Crown would have done so. The trial came on at the Old Bailey on Monday, with all the accompaniments of a cavxe celebre. The Court was crowded. The Solicitor-General, Mr Grain, and Mr F. M. Abrahams appeared for the prosecution, and Mr Besley and Mr Gill for Endacott. For a while the ovidence was formal, but all eyes were turned to the door when the usher called Mrs Elizabeth Langley, n£e Miss Cass. She took her place in the witness-box without hurry or flurry. The complainant was very quietly dressed, in steeple hafc trimmed with sober ribbons, black cloth jacket, and brown gloves ; and was naturally pale in complexion. Few persons in Court could hear her answers. As a witness she was what lawyers consider a model of brevity, never extending her answers beyond a monosyllable unless compelled so to do. Throughout both examination and crossi examination she betrayed a remarkable, ( and apparently natural, solidity of manner, pausing often at considerable length beforo replying, and exhibiting no sort of emotion at any time, Endacott sat in the dock during the whole day. The cross-examination by Mr Besley revealed some new evidence, the first being a statement that the assistant at Shoolbred's walked home with her to Trinity Square, on the other side of the water, soon after her arrival in town from the North. Up to this time, it must be remembered, Miss Cass had declai-ed she went to Shoolbred's for some ribbon only. She now said she got the assistant who served her to call Mr Settle. He said he should not be free till half-past seven. Miss Cass replied &he would return then. Four hours intervened, which Miss Ca«s spent walking about the streets. The suggestion of the defence, of course, is that Endacott saw her then. She persisted that she stayed in Tottenham Court Road and adjacent streets all the time, but her knowledge of localities was shown to be very vague. Miss Casss engagement to young Langley (her present husband) was broken off before she left Stockton. She was then on intimate terms with a married man named Simmonds. One of her friends, a Miss Costello, remonstrated with her for carrying on so with Simmonds. Miss Cass replied that she had broken with Langley, and could do as she liked. Her engagement to Langley was not renewed till after the trouble with Endacott. She had not lived with her husband since her marriage till a few days back. After their wedding he returned to his work at Burton. Miss Cass further confessed to another indiscreet flirtation with a married man named Bryan. She had gone walks late at night with Bryan, and accompanied him more than once on an excursion without his wife's knowledge. On t\ro occasions they had tea in a private room at an hotel together. Miss Cass denied that she visited Bryan at his house when his wife and servants were away. It was not true either that she spent Christinas Day alone with Bryan, and cooked a goose he had won in a raffle for their dinner. | When Miss Cass left Stockton for London Bryan agreed to go with her as far as York. He travelled in the same train, but not in the same carriage. She saw him on the platform at Stockton, but she took no notice of him. Her father and brother were with her then. She did not draw their attention to Bryan. They didn't know him. At York Bryan gave her some lunch. She went on to London in the afternoon. Witness «wore positively to arriving in London on T ."■ "lay, nob Wednesday ni°fhb. There were nu mnds for saying she passed Tuesday nighb at York with Bryan. There had never been any liaison betwixt herself and Bryan. Mr Besley : Did you tell your friend Whitehead that Bryan had given you a satchel and some gloves, and that he was going to mee.t you ? — No. I used to see Bryan about twice a week before he went to York with me. By the Judge : Did he ever give you a satchel ? — No. Or gloves ? — Yes. One pair. By Mr Besley. — Is that the only present he ever made you ? — No, he gave me a box — a glove box. I don't remember his giving me anything else. By the Judge.— ls that all ?—There may have been something else. What then ? You can't have had presents given you without knowing it. — Witness (after a long pause) : He gave me a ring — with the stone out. A diamond. Where is the ring ? — My husband has it. In re-examination, Mrs Langley said her husband knew all about her "goings-on" with Bryan. The evidence in chief of Mrs Bowman was precisely the same as at the preliminary inquiry. In cross-examination, ahe denied either that her daughter often "brought home men" or that she used filthy and obscene language in the workroom. The Judge remarked that these insinuations should not have been made unless there were good grounds for them, upon which a juror ejaculated "hear, hear." His lordship was down upon the wretched man like lightning. The vsry idea of an expression of opinion coining from the jurybox horrified him. He threatened to commit the offender for contempt of Court, but subsequently somewhat modified the rebuke. The other evidence given on Monday was immaterial. Mrs Tomkins, with whom Miss Cass stayed upon her arrival in London, was the first witness on Tuesday. She remembered the day Miss Cass came. It was certainly a Wednesday, she was positive of that. Miss Cass had stated in her evidence that she left home on a Tuesday, and after lunching at York with Bryan, came on to London the same day. On Thursday, Mrs Tomkins took Miss Cass shopping in Regent, where it was

quite possible Endacott might have seen her. The police evidence was ranch the sanio as at the informal inquiry, which, by-the-by, the Judge roundly condemned. The prosecution having closed, Mr Justice Stephen 1 uled that Endacott must be acquired, as two direct witnesses were essential to prove a case of perjury, and only one had been called. It is, he explained, a well understood rule that to support a charge of perjury there must be corroborative evidence. A will not be convicted of the offence merely on the word of B unsupported by any circumstance. Whether that rule is a sensible one or not was no concern of the Judge or jury ; the rule exists, and must receive effect at the hands of the Judge of the land. Accordingly Mr Justice Stephen put in effect to the Solicitor-General this dilemma : — " If you rely on the allegation by Endacott that he saw Miss Cass stop gentlemen, there is no corroboration of her evidence ; it is merely her oath against his. If you rely on his allegation that he had seen her three times before in Regent-street, the allegation may not have been material to the issue, which every allegation must be in order to found perjury upon it." Mr Stead is furious. In his eyes Miss Cass is still the most innocent and injured of women. Her two flirtations with married men he prudently ignores. Endacott will, it is said, now be re-instated and granted all arrears of pay. He has throughout stuck tenaciously to his story, when nothing would have been easier than to admit the possibility of a mistake. That he believes in it himself there cannot be a|doubt. Here endeth the Cass case.