Victorian Court Cases: Did John Walker Know His Onions?

The next witness to be called was PC Newton who said that he had gone to John Walker’s house at around 8.15 on the evening of 13 September 1873 and found Mrs Walker at home.  He’d asked if he could speak to John but Mrs Walker told the constable that John hadn’t been home since that morning and she didn’t know where he was.  PC Newton asked if he could look around the house and upon gaining access had noticed some onions which appeared to be the same variety as those grown by Robert Cooper.  The policeman asked Mrs. Walker where they’d come from and she replied that John had brought them home that morning but she had no idea where he’d got them.  The policeman estimated there was about a bushel.  Walker was later found and arrested.

At this stage in the proceedings John Walker probably still thought that he’d receive a light sentence but the Judge, on calling Walker to the stand, announced that he’d received an account from Robert Evans-Roberts, the Chairman of Bedford Prison who had said that Walker had been convicted of 13 previous crimes under the assumed name of Mulls.  Amongst those crimes were assault, larceny and receiving stolen goods.  It seemed to the Judge that the minor sentences Walker had received in the past hadn’t deterred him from a life of crime and so he was sentencing him to seven years imprisonment (penal servitude) and seven years police supervision.  All for the sake of a bag of onions – bet that made Walker’s eyes water!!!!

And so ends the tale of John Walker, save to say that he was taken to Pentonville Prison on 19 May, 1874 following a photographic session at the Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s photographic studios and a full physical description being noted.