A French "Beck" Case.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 783, 29 March 1905, Page 3

A French "Beck" Case.

O ' PARIS, Pel). 19. Details or whafTs alleged lo be an extraordinary miscarriage of justice entailing tragically palnfu 1 ] consequences am set forth by the Petit Parisien. The circumstances are most pathetic, and the terrible nature of this judicial b'. under throws the Heck cai-c imo coniparalive insignificance. Long years ago—as far liack as 1867—say's the journal, a M. AMegrain was accidentally drowned in a horse pond in the village of Uomont, in the Department of Scine-et-Oisc. Weeks after his death his wife and son, aged sixteen, were on the flimsiest evidence charged with having murdered him, and actually convicted and sentenced —the mothei (o penal servitude for life and the son to ten years' imprisonment. The details of the affair are briefly these. On November 28;, late at night, in a dense fog, M. AHegrain left the village inn to return to hishoire- in the darkness he lost his way, a.id fell into the pond'. His cries of "Help ! 1/ am drowning ! "reached the ears of the inn: : keeper, who was unable to save him, but with the aid of a large hook eventually succeeded in pulling out the ibody. In doing so he inflioled on The dead man three wounds with the sharp point of the hook). ' A death - certificate was obtained, and the. unfortunate man buried. Later on, however, the village gossips began to talk of murder. What they said reached the ears of an over-jealous magistrate, who went to Mine. Allegrain's house, bluntly charged her with having caused llic death of her husband. She denied it hotly, and might have convinced the official had he not caught sight of some bloodstains on young Allegrain's «joat. The boy had recently been suffering from bleeding 0 £ the nose, and the oflicial at once jn- '• eluded the son in his indictment oi ' the mother. The result of the magistrate's visit, on sivh evidence as that wvn- • Honed above, the mother and son • were formally charge! A course ol ■ systematic bullying i, v the same official in court induced the innkeopei to declare that the deceased's last words were not as he had at first said, V I am drowning ! " uu t "They j arc drowning me ! " A neighbour : swore to tearing Mine. Ali'egrain ; leave and re-enter her house during the night. The bloodstains on the i boy's garments and the scratches inflicted by the hook were enought fot the judges of the superior ■ court. -T-. .'.-'X-v"':'-