"Behind closed doors yesterday in the Court last named, before Sir James Smith, was tried the blackmailing case against William Belton, nominally an agent for a patent-medicine, but of no present occupation; the suit brought by Mr. Albert H— of Birmingham. Mr. H- charged that one evening, six months ago (April), while walking in a secluded part of Hyde Park the defendant accosted him, and walked some distance with him chatting. He finally asked the complainant for some pecuniary help, which the complainant gave him—a mere trifle at the time. The defendant managed however to ascertain the name, residence and position in society of the defendant. He presently wrote plaintiff threatening letters, and also twice visited him, against the will of the complainant, at his London lodgings; demanding money, and continuing to threaten the defendant with loss of character and with a felonious charge. He declared that the offence in question had occurred on the evening mentioned. Mr. H— wholly denied the charge, but was however timorous enough to give the defendant considerable sum as hush-money, to avoid any chances of public defamation. The defendant has continued his demands and his visits, and has greatly annoyed and terrified Mr. H— by Ids threats and exactions. He has received from Mr. H— not less than sixty pounds, on one occasion, on another thirty, on another fifty, and so on. The whole amount that Mr. H— has paid over, in a mistaken course toward such scandalous extortion, amounts to four hundred and eleven pounds; and the complainant's estate is seriously injured as well as his peace of mind much impaired. The defendant told a circumstantial story, which the Court concluded was manufactured out of few real incidents. The defendant was sentenced to one year's imprisonment; taking his sentence with a burst of obscenity against the complainant."
In such instance, the victim seems to have succeeded in keeping clear of incriminating himself sexually, while proving the blackmail; an important, troublesome—often impossible—aspect of such a case in England, where the plaintiff in the blackmailing suit may be visited by the law for homosexual offenses. In libel-suits, divorce-suits and the like, this point is grave. It was, as we have seen earlier in this book, the ruin of Oscar Wilde.
— 481 —
