HALLIWELL’S STRANGE STORY.
Reference has been made more than once to an extraordinary story told by a young man named Percy Halliwell, and as it has gone unchallenged, in circumstances which seemed to call for challenge if it were untrue, it may be given first place in the recital of the fresh facts. Detective Piggott was strong throughout the case in his assertion that Ivy Matthews had never made any statement to the police as to what she could or would say. Literally that was, no doubt, true, but it remains to be seen whether, in view of what follows, it was not an assertion which, while literally true, was well calculated to create a totally false impression. When representations were being made to the Government with a view of securing a reprieve of Ross, pending an appeal to the Privy Council, a statutory declaration by Halliwell was (inter alia) laid before the Attorney-General. This declaration, in addition to being laid before the Government, has been published in the press, and it has never been contradicted. In it Halliwell said that he was in the saloon during the Friday afternoon; that at 6 o’clock he was in the cubicle with the two Rosses and another man named Evans (who, in the meantime, had left the country), and that they drank a bottle of beer in it; that they all left together, and that it would have been impossible for the little girl to have been in the saloon without him seeing her. His evidence about the bottle of beer is all the more valuable because neither Stanley nor Colin Ross were asked anything about it on the trial, and, consequently, said nothing of it.
Halliwell’s declaration then goes on to say that on Monday, January 9, Ivy Matthews called at his house in Gore Street, Fitzroy, and told him that she had told the detectives that he had made a key for Ross. Halliwell said: “That is untrue.” It is important to remember that, at this time, the problem of how Ross, if he were the murderer, got back to the Arcade, was troubling the detectives, and Matthews appears to have come forward with a suggestion, for she knew that Halliwell was a locksmith. Matthews then said: “I want you to tell the detectives you made a key,” and she said that she also wanted him to tell the detectives that he was in the saloon on the Saturday, and asked Ross if he knew anything of the murder, and that Ross replied: “I have never been a ‘shelf’”—a “shelf” being, in criminal language, an informer. Matthews then said to him: “I’ve got a friend down at the corner in a motor, who is very much interested in this case, and I want you to tell him what I have said to you.” He accompanied her to the corner of Westgarth Street, where he found Detective Piggott in a car. Piggott directed him to sit in the front seat with the driver, and Matthews got up beside Piggott on the back seat. Piggott after a time said to him: “What about those keys?” and he replied that he knew nothing about them. Piggott said: “I want you to come to the Detective Office with me,” but Matthews said: “I want to see him this afternoon.” Piggott and Matthews had a conversation, and then Matthews said to Halliwell: “I want you to meet me at the corner of the Queen’s Mansions at 3 o’clock this afternoon,” and when Halliwell said he did not know where they were, she explained that they were at the corner of Rathdown and Victoria streets. He then got out of the car, and later he met Matthews at the time and place appointed. She took him to her house, supplied him with some drink, and then said: “I don’t want you to slip in anything I told you this morning; why did you tell Piggott you never made the keys?” Halliwell said: “I was only telling the truth when I said it.” She then sent him to the Detective Office, where he was questioned by Piggott and Brophy. When he said he was at the saloon on the Friday Piggott said: “No, it was on the Thursday,” and told him he was also there on the Saturday, and that the conversation, as indicated above, took place between him and Ross. Halliwell signed a statement and left. There is little doubt that statement contains the assertion that Halliwell was at the saloon on the Thursday.
The simple fact that Halliwell was in the saloon on the Friday, and could not have failed to see the murdered girl had she been there, was put before the Court of Criminal Appeal on affidavit. In reply, Detective Brophy filed an affidavit that Halliwell, before the trial, called at the Detective Office and informed Detective Piggott and himself that Stanley and Ronald Ross wanted him to swear that he was in the saloon with Colin Ross when they closed the place on the night of Friday, December 30. Brophy said to him: “Were you there?” and Halliwell replied: “No, but they wanted me to say so, and I am not going to commit perjury.” Nothing was said in the affidavit as to whether or not he gave a signed statement to the police, but if he did it is not clear why he should have been got to sign a statement that he was in the saloon on the Thursday (which could have been of no affirmative use to the police), unless he had said something about being there on the Friday. The fact remains that he was never called as a witness by the Crown, which proves that he was not prepared to assist the Crown case. He was not called for the defence for two reasons—firstly, because the statement he had signed effectually prevented him being called; and, secondly, because, when seen at the court, he told Ross’s solicitor that “what he had to say he would say in the box.” When it was too late, Halliwell was willing to make amends, and was firm in his assertion that he was in the saloon on the Friday afternoon, as stated above.
The important part of Halliwell’s declaration, however, is not his backing and filling as to whether or not he was in the saloon on the Friday, but whether, on January 9, Ivy Matthews was taking an active part, in co-operation with the detectives, in getting evidence against Ross. This was not mentioned in Halliwell’s declaration as laid before the court, but was in the declaration put before the Cabinet. If she was not, then Halliwell should have been prosecuted for perjury; if she was, then Piggott’s evidence may remain literally true, that Matthews never gave a statement to the police; but its effect was to convey a wrong impression as to the part which Matthews took in making a case against Ross. It will be noted that there is a curious resemblance between the account which Maddox gives of the conversation she had with Ross on Thursday, Jan. 5, and the conversation which Halliwell swears he was asked to say took place on Saturday, December 31, between him and Ross. In neither case was there a direct admission, but in each there was the suggestion that Ross knew all about the tragedy if he would only speak.
There is another fact which shows that Ivy Matthews gave more information to the detectives than the evidence given in court would suggest. In her evidence at the inquest Matthews said that, when she was conversing with Stanley, she said: “Where is Colin?”—an unlikely thing, since she was not on speaking terms with Colin. Stanley said (according to her): “He is not well; he has gone home.” Immediately after, she said, she heard Colin laugh, and she said to Stanley: “I thought Colin was not in?” Stanley said (according to her): “He must have come in by the other door.” In his supplementary statement, made on January 5, which was taken down in answer to questions, Colin Ross said: “I was home all day Thursday—I was not well. I did not leave the shop on Friday and say that I was ill. I was not away from the saloon on the afternoon of Friday. I can give no reason why my brother should say I was ill.” From this it is clear that on or prior to January 5 Ivy Matthews had told the detectives, whatever else she told them, that Stanley had said that Colin was away ill on the Friday.