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Carnarvon Assizes (Sentence On Epileptic)

Volume 104: debated on Tuesday 19 March 1918

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19.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can have an inquiry made into the circumstances of the case at Carnarvon Assizes in January, when D. G. Davies, though certified by medical evidence as having been an incurable epileptic for fourteen years, was sentenced to three years' penal servitude, and has since become insane?

This prisoner has not been certified insane. As the result of his trial (at which he pleaded guilty) and of the sentence he suffered a severe shock, but I am informed that with careful nursing there is a good prospect of his health improving in prison. There is already some improvement.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this man was certified as insane within a fortnight of his conviction, and that the judge at the Assizes disregarded all the medical evidence?

I cannot believe that to be so, and it is not a fact that he has been certified as insane.