Trial
The Attorney-General, F.E.Smith, went to Derby himself and used his influence to move the trial to London, where he prosecuted the case and appeared in person. At the trial at the Old Bailey, which began on 6 March 1917, Smith refused to call Gordon as a witness, thus preventing his being cross-examined on his own involvement in the "plot". Alfred Mason (aged 24) was sentenced to seven years and Winnie (aged 23) to five years, even though the jury recommended mercy on account of their youth. Hettie was acquitted. Alice was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude and was sent to Aylesbury Prison, where she went on hunger strike. She was later moved to Holloway (HM Prison).
Three days after the conviction, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers published an open letter to the Home Secretary that included the following:
"We demand that the Police Spies, on whose evidence the Wheeldon family is being tried, be put in the Witness Box, believing that in the event of this being done fresh evidence will be forthcoming which will put a different complexion on the case."
Read more about this topic: Alice Wheeldon
Famous quotes containing the word trial:
“A trial cannot be conducted by announcing the general culpability of a civilization. Only the actual deeds which, at least, stank in the nostrils of the entire world were brought to judgment.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 9:32-33.
Job, about God.
“A man who has no office to go to—I don’t care who he is—is a trial of which you can have no conception.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)