A JUDGE'S LAPSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1916, Page 8

A JUDGE'S LAPSE.

I An extraordinary judgment was given by ' hj; Justice Edwards in a blackmail case at, Palmerston North last week. The facts are summarised by the, loeai Time.--, thus: —A woman deliberately set out to trap a farmer named Buchanan j for the purpose of securing a large suir of money. She took advantage of tl.i fact that her daughter bad been in employment in that man's household to implicate him in a criminal charge. Shr interviewed him personally, and Hire.!' ened to ruin h'<m in the eyes of bis wifr i and of his neighbors if he did not pay her a sum of money. She followed this i interview up with a telegram asking for a further interview, and obtaining no response to that, wrote him a letter full of filthy suggestions, threatening him with ruin, and indicating that she was prepared to take as "compensation" tho | sum of £IOOO, "such sum to be paid £iioo in cash and £SOO in four years." Not only that but the woman induced her thirteen-year-old daughter to go inti. the witness box and repeat to the Magistrate an obviously concocted story in which the child brazenly implicated Buchanan in a criminal offonce. When the mayor came under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court the Grand Jury unfortunately threw out the bill against Buchanan. \V". say unfortunately, because the accused .man was there with counsel and witnesses prepared to meet and refute the charges detail by detail and expose ;he machinations of the woman Callaghan clearly and conclusively. His actions all through were those of an honest, straightforward, and innocent man Immediately after the first interview with the blackmailer he at once consuited his solicitor, and with him the police, and kept both in touch with every item of the negotiations. When charged at the instigation of Mrs. Callaghan with a criminal offence he went into the box, tendered evidence, and emerged candidly from a searching cross-examination When the charge against Buchanan of criminal assault came, on in the Magistrate's Court both Mrs. Callaghan and her daughter gave evidence which was undoubtedly rshearsed, and they introduced an extraneous element of "hypnotism" to give veri-similitude to their tale. Under cross-examination Mrs. Callaghan was badly shaken, and even went to the extent of denying details of the blackmailing letter which was on record in her own handwriting. When the charge of attempted extortion cama on before th? Supreme Court Mrs. Cal laghan was not prepared to face another ordeal of cross-examination. She cut the proceedings short by pleading "guilty ' Mr. Justice Edwards first of all intimated that he would reserve judgment in the case. When Mrs. Callaghan came up again on the second day he said that if the woman had been sentenced on the previous day he would have ordered her to be imprisoned for at least three years, but "something had come to his knowledge" which, if true, and he had no reason to think it was not true, would have a material effect in mitigating the sentence 'which he would pass upon hor. On Friday came the climax. His Honor intimated that he had decided to order the woman to come up for sentence when called upon. His Honor's "reasons," comments the Times, rank amongst the most remarkable ever plaoed on record by a criminal judgo. They are based upon the circumstance that prior to writing the wicked and diabolical concoction of lies for the purposes of extracting money for herself at the expense of her daughter's reputation Mrs. Callaghan had consulted a lawyer, M'bo had, I( not explicitly warned her that she. must in no circumstance threaten Buchanan with a criminal charge." As Mrs. Callaghan had consulted this lawyer and had not told him that she wa» going tp write « blackmailing letter tP Buchanan (aud. therefore ebuld not have been warned against such a course of action) she escaped the "three years or more" that was rightly coming to her, and was liberated unpunished to pursue Iter p\vn. devices. During the course, qf t||isi ejetwordinavy judgment, Mr. Justice Edwards uses those words: "The very tenor of your letter to Buchanan, though I deeply regret it, sutisfies me that you were quite unaware when you wrote it that you were committing a crime." Th,p, Times quotes a fpw §ei]fence,s. ftpm, that "innocent" apnccctipn:—H . , , rotten cptyafd, thing not fit to live. God help your 'ppoy- \yifp; I wpuld have |ake^i the full penalty of flip tew Imt fp? hep;

but, so help my God, I will do so on Thursday unless you come here and sign the enclosed (demand foi . £I<XW). lam ill almost to death when I think of my poor child's sufferings at your, mercy > . . Once this awful thing gets into print you ar? ruined, and you know it. . . ," Did ever blackmailer concoct a more cold, calculating, malevolent document? The allusion to the wife, the mention of her poor daughter's sufferings, the threat of the penalties of publicity; there you have the typical blackmail outfit complete, backed with a depraved craving to reduce the whole satanic conception down to a transaction of pounds, shillings, and pence. The Times concludes:—"We need say nothing further, except that this judgment is remarkable less for wisdom than for inverted logic. It is calculated to give concern to those who are jealous for the high traditions of our judicature. Compared with murder, blackmail, is a venial crime. It is abhorrent to kill; but infinitely more repellent to stab a living reputation. The blackmailer is the worst of parasites. The law acknowledges this when it prescribes the life pemiity ns a maximum punishment for malefactors of this class, And when such an offender escapes punishment, no matter under what pretext, the community is entitled through its mouthpiece to express swww and resentment." •..;.:..._ \ ihi /