Wrong about editor’s jailing
I AM NOT able to comment on the general accuracy of Paddy McGarvey’s letter about Suzanne Breen, but he is wrong about the case of John George Haigh. Scotland Yard did not prosecute and jail the editor of the Daily Mirror, Sylvester Bolam — since when did the police have this power?
After Haigh was charged in 1949 with the murder of the wealthy widow Olive Durand-Deacon, the Mirror reported that he had committed other murders and gave the names of the alleged victims.
It was not the police but Haigh himself who had Bolam jailed. From his cell in Lewes Prison he brought two motions for contempt of court. The Lord Chief Justice’s court had stern words for the editor: “The publication of a statement which may prejudice in any way the fair conduct of a case ... violated every principle of justice and fair play which it has been the pride of this country to extend to the worst of criminals ... a gross contempt”.
Alexander Baron
London SE26