THE BABBICOMBE MURDER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2338, 5 July 1887, Page 2

THE BABBICOMBE MURDER.

A Lr.Mot.'B nf a most extraordinary ami sensational character, winch, if tin 1 , wo ;M seriously shake public confidence in sentences pronounced on circumstantial e-.i deuce, is being wliispeie.l ale.nt aiu-ngst the clerks at the Horne ( Ifiic ■ in Hindoo. Soino years ago a young man (a letljer named Led) was sentenced to ii-.,th for murdering his mistress and hen-factr-ss, : ,n elderly maiden lady re-iding at Bibhicomhe, near Torquay. Thecas- attract-d a lot of attention at the time, ami mure of onr readers may p-rhaps r. member the facts well. The lad all though struck firmly to Ins innocence. lln the scaffold there was a ghastly and shocking se-ne. Three times the hangman tried to do his rhitv. ami three times the rope broke, till at length the sheriff refused to allow the execution to proceed. In ace rdance with precedent in such ernes Iho capital sentence was then ce.mmnted, and Lee went to a '‘living death" at D.utmoor. Mark the -sequel 1 It is now said that some month' ago one of Lees fellow-servants—the girl who, at the trial, was snsp-cted of haring an illicit lover—confessed to the crime on her deathbed, and satisfied the authorities of Lee’s entire innocence. The unfortunate young man was subsequently released, and pensioned for life at ISOs a week, but not till be had given a solemn undertaking to the prison chaplain not to reveal the truth. The Home Office justify their extraordinary action in the matter on the ground that if the facts wern known circumstantial c.i deuce in capital cases would practically become a dead letter, ami that is mo-t undesirable, as in fill cases out of ]IJO. conclusions deduced theiefroin are correct.