FIFTY-NINE
THE PALL MALL GAZETTE
THE OUTRAGE AT SUTTON COURTENAY: VERDICT IN
At the Central Criminal Court, yesterday, before Mr Justice Bankes and a jury, Mrs Georgina Gregson, thirty, was placed on her trial charged with having set fire to the summer house (by the use of a specially constructed ‘arson’ or ‘Orsini’ bomb) at The Wharf, Sutton Courtenay, knowing full well that the Prime Minister, The Right Hon. H. H. Asquith was within, which resulted in a charge of attempted murder. Mr Bodkin and Mr Travers Humphreys prosecuted; Mr Langdon, KC, and Mr E. D. Muir appeared for the defence.
Despite testimony of good character from Mrs Carter-Tate and Mrs Gregson’s husband, Inspector Tobias Gregson, a member of Scotland Yard’s élite CID squad, Mrs Gregson was found guilty.
Mr Justice Bankes, in summing up, said that ‘not very long ago it would have been unthinkable that a well-educated, well-brought-up young woman could have committed a crime like this. Not long ago one would have heard appeals to juries to acquit her on the grounds that it was unthinkable she could have committed such a crime. But, unfortunately, women as a class have forfeited any presumption in their favour of that kind. As a consequence it is impossible to approach these cases from the standpoint from which they would have been approached only a few years ago. It was open to the accused to give some explanation, but she has not done so, and the suggestion of her counsel that she is wholly innocent when traces of mercury of fulminate were found in her home and on her clothes was rightly dismissed by the jury.’
The judge went on to call her alibi for the night in question ‘laughably thin’ and to praise the anonymous individual who had ‘tipped off’ detectives that Mrs Gregson was one of the perpetrators.
The prisoner then proceeded to read a long statement in which she denied the jurisdiction of the Court, contending that women should be on the jury.
The Judge: ‘I have listened to what you have had to say, and my duty is to pass sentence upon you. It is no desire of mine to lecture you, but I am provoked by what you said to say this, and this only: The statement you have made seems to me to indicate that you have lost all sense of the consequence of what you are doing. You do not seem to realize the loss and injury and anxiety that such acts as yours cause to all classes – not only to the rich but to the poor and struggling; not only to men but to women. You talk about man-made law as if that was the only law that ought to govern people’s actions. You must have heard of another law which says: “Ye shall do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you.” That is the law you are breaking.’
The judge also said that her unwillingness to give up her coconspirators would count against her. Mrs Gregson was sentenced to ten years with hard labour. She immediately announced her intention to go on hunger strike.