Notes on Recent Crime
| Date | 01 October 1931 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3100400401 |
| Published date | 01 October 1931 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
POLICE
TOURNAL
J
VOL.
IV.
No.
4
OCTOBER
1931
Notes
on
Recent
Crime
HE
centre
of
the criminal stage has been taken up with
T
the trial of Lord Kylsant and Mr. Morland at the Old
Bailey before Mr. Justice Wright, on charges of publishing
false balance sheets, and, in the case
of
Lord Kylsant,
a
false
prospectus
of
the R.M.S.P. Mr. Morland, as high in the
accountancy world
as
Lord Kylsant in the shipping world and
as the counsel engaged in the case in the legal world, was
acquitted on proof that his phrase
‘
adjustment of taxation
reserves
’
was usual and such as any accountant might have
used. Lord Kylsant, acquitted on the balance sheet charge,
was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment in the Second
Division
on
the prospectus charge. The question seems to
arise-an a statement literally true be
‘
false in a material
particular
?
’
Mr. Justice Wright
as
a
matter
of
law, and the
jury
as a matter
of
fact, said yes,
if
the statement is misleading
and intended to mislead. Lord Kylsant had stated there was
‘
a balance available for dividend.’ There was
;
but no profits
and vast hidden reserves had been tapped. The answer of the
Court of Criminal Appeal in the autumn
is
awaited with interest.
Two sensational murder trials have ended in the acquittal
of the accused persons. The first was that of Mrs. Hearn,
tried before Mr. Justice Roche at Bodmin Assizes for the
murder by arsenic of her sister and of a Mrs. Thomas, wife of
a friend
;
and the second was that of
Mrs.
Benfold, tried before
Mr. Justice Mackinnon at Durham Assizes, for the murder
of
her husband by battering him to death with
an
axe. Both were
cases
of
circumstantial evidence and, without in any way re-
flecting on the justice
of
the juries’ decisions in the particular
cases, one
can
only hope that juries are not, after the Wallace
case,
going
to
go
to
the opposite extreme
of
over-cautiousness.
2H
481
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