Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 25 December 1895, page 6


JUDGE BACKHOUSE ' AND

MR. HEYDON.

???? 22 The following

correspondence bears upon the subject of Mr Crick's letter to the He? said on

Tuesday -

41 Judges'' Chambers, District Court, Sydney,

24th December, 1815

44 Dear Mr Gould,-Nothing is so misleading as a statement in which there is a scintilla of truth, while the whole intention meant to be convoy oil is absolutely untrue I therefore wish to place before you what did take place between Mr Hay don and my self with reference to the Roto

cose

44 The first charge against Mr Heydon, and inferentially against me for I decline to be white-washed at the expense of Mr Heydon or anyone else was that he had privately approached me with a view to influencing me in the sentence to be passed on Rofe The form of the questions asked by Mr. Perry, and the reference to the sentence in Mr. Crick's speech of last Thursday, show this has charge was denied The charge now, made is that Mr Heydon 4 succeeded in getting the Judge to take a different view of the case ' What happened was this After the conviction of Rofe I heard that Mr Heydon still believed him innocent thinking that Mr Heydon would not take such a ion w without some very good grounds, and feeling that some things pointed to Rule's not fully understand-ing what he was doing up to the time of his arrest, I asked Mr Roy don when I saw him on other business if what I had heard was true He acquiesced, and I then shortly put to him what I considered the strong points against Rote, and said, 41 If you can throw any new light (of course I meant in court on these matters I will recommend an inquiry under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1883 " The whole interview did not last many minutes, and I did the talking, not Mr Heydon But, as I wish to be strictly accurate, it was partly a few minutes before the afternoon sitting on Friday, before sentence was passed on Rofe, and for a few minutes after I went into my chambers, when the jury had retired in the second Dean case After those few

minutes, till the jury agreed, we were talking about general matters, and a third person was present most of the time Later on Mr Heydon sent my associate

to me to ask me to allow certain exhibits in the case to leave the court till Monday Mr. Heydon took these, and on them and other matters addressed me on Monday.

444 am, Dear Mr Gould.

41 Yours sincerely,

"AIF. P. Bicnionsi.

" The Hon. A. J. Gould, Minister of Justice."

'* Judges' Chambers, District Court, Sydney,

" 25th November, 1895

" Dear Mr Gould,-Although the grossest misrepresentations with regard to the Rofe case, and

the wildest charges of improper conduct on my part have been made conscious of no evil doing, and believing that what I did was absolute tch right, I should not have referred to the matter again wfroitnot that I am afraid Unit opinions formed in an unreasoning excitement may lead to an alteration of one of the most useful of our penal statutes, and I therefore wish to place on record my view of the share Roto took in the Butler conspiracy case -The measure of his complicity in the crime is far less than that of Butler, Davis, or Peake He had nothing to do with the bringing about the circumstances point-ing to adults!) on Mrs Butler's part, and I am abso-lute]) certain that he knew nothing of a plot till January this year, months after the Mooroo nisi had

been obtained by Butler, and that he is as innocent as I am of the main wrong done Mr Butler No doubt Rofe, as soon as I've 'got the knowledge, should have communicated with the Judge in Divorce, but his not doing so was no crime, although it was misconduct on his part as a solicitor for which he could have been dealt with If in May Rofe had not helped Buller with the affidavit necessary to obtain the decree absolute not applied for by Rose and, in fact, never obtained question whether there would have been a case against him This affidavit as drafted was no doubt untrue, and as sworn to by

Butler, although verb lily correct, was misleading Rose very soon repented of his act for a few days after the affidavit was drawn he saw the Judge and explained exactly how matters stood '1 rue, the Crown urged that his action was brought about by the arrest of Davis and Peel c, and I agree that it was, but I also think that it was after the arrest that Rate for the first time apples noted what he had done that he kept the draft affidavit, which without exciting any suspicion he might have destroyed, and that he produced it voluntarily at Butler's trial, gives food for thought whether he became arrest realised his position at all This short statement of the COKO can be fully borne out by the evidence, and I will gladly if you wish it go into the matter in detail and prove beyond doubt that my view is correct These being the facts, to speak at Rofe's guilt as equal to that of the others convicted RIIOWS an ignorance of the case. But, further, my duty to the public, my duty to Rofe, was to impose such punishment as I thought his particular case deserved, irrespective of other cases, the evidence in which was not completely before remove especially the evidence of character Taking the view I did I thought the case came pre-eminently) within the provisions of the First Offenders Act, and I treated it accordingly By the way, it may be remarked that the language of that Act is perfectly clear, and that there is nothing in it to limit the application to young or any particular class of first offenders Further, although the expressed intention could not be modified by opinions expressed during debate, such opinions may be considered in finding out what was the actual intention of the Legislature A reference will show that the actual intention was the expressed intention

" I nil Dear Mr Gould, v yours sincerely,

"Aiv P BACKHOUSE "