1910 from a contempt of court trial

CONTEMPT OP COURT. BALLARAT MURDER TRIAL. LAW CLERK ADJUDGED GUILTY. Much interest was evinced in legal circles yesterday in the proceedings taken by the Attorney-General (Mr. Drysdale Brown) to attach two persons for contempt in connection with the trial of Peter Long at Ballarat. Long (or Yee Lee) it will be remembered, was tried for murder in Ballarat, and the jury disagreed. While the second trial was pending, a petition was prepared and forwarded to the Attorney General, and portions of it were published in the press. This the Attorney-General considered a contempt of court, and he moved the Court lo baye Mr. Alfred Ernest King (managing " clerk for Mr. P. Ham, solicitor, of Ualláralj) and Mr. John Mann,the foreman of the jury, attached. The motion for attachment was made by Mr. Mitchell, K.O. (with Mr. Lewers); Mr. Bryant, instructed by Mr." Ham, appearcd for Mr. King, and Mr. Lazarus, of Ballarat for Mr. Mann....

Alfred Ernest King, the respondent, gave evidence. He said, "I had a conversation with John Walker Lee, a juryman, and at his suggestion and from what he said I prepared ino petition. I received no instructions from Mann. My sole object was to save the accused from the expense of a second trial, though that would have been, of course, disadvantageous to our office. I had no intention of preventing the course of justice running freely. As to the publication, I was called on by a reporter and gave him a copy of the petition, but I told him not to publish anything about the deliberations of the juryroom.