DISCHARGED BUT DISGRACED, EXETER, 1886.

 Thomas Pope, a twenty-seven year old musician, had come to Exeter and taken lodging with a Mr. Brice.  Mr. Brice had a sixteen year old daughter, Eva. The two young people fell in love and they ran off to nearby towns for three nights of passion,   Thomas Pope was apprehended and taken into custody.   It was 76 days confinement before he came before the visiting judge, Justice Stephens, at the City Assizes.  The case depended on whether or not Thomas Pope knew that Amy was not yet eighteen.   His defence was that she had told him that she was.  The prosecution brought powerful arguments to bear and the case was something of a cliffhanger.  In the end the jury found Thomas Pope not guilty.  It seems that the citizens who had come to see the trial agreed with the verdict:

"The jury acquitted the prisoner, and the verdict was greeted with an outburst of cheering and laughter.

"His Lordship, springing to his feet, said:  Take into custody one of the men who laughed and bring him to me.  No action was taken on this command. and his Lordship again said:  Policemen, take into custody any man you saw making a noise and bring him before me,- The policemen in the Hall, however, seemed not to have seen anyone making a noise, for no one was arrested, and his Lordship continuing, said:  I must say I never felt greater disgust in my life at hearing applause upon the acquittal of a man who has disgraced himself in a most infamous manner.  I don't criticise the verdict of the jury, but I say that those who are glad that a man has escaped punishment for a most filthy, a most treacherous, a most cruel and wicked action, share some of his guilt and would probably be capable of doing something of the same kind themselves.  To the prisoner:  You are discharged,  but you are disgraced."

I notice nobody thought to ask Eva anything about anything.

Let us pay tribute to the stalwart Exeter policemen who, in the tradition of Admiral Lord Nelson, did not see what they did not want to see.

Source:  The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette,  1st February, 1886.