3560 x 4813 px | 30,1 x 40,8 cm | 11,9 x 16 inches | 300dpi
Weitere Informationen:
The affair of the Tichborne claimant was the celebrated 19th-century legal case in the United Kingdom of Arthur Orton (1834–1898), an imposter who claimed to be the missing heir Sir Roger Tichborne (1829–1854). The trial to establish his inheritance began on 11 May 1871 in the Court of Common Pleas before Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet CJ, and lasted 102 days. Orton weathered the attacks against the discrepancies in his story and his outright ignorance of many key facts Sir Roger would have known, including how to speak French as the heir had spent most of his youth in France. Over 100 people vouched for his identity as Sir Roger—except Orton's brother who claimed otherwise. Eventually Sir John Coleridge (whose junior was Charles Bowen) revealed the whole case in a cross-examination that lasted 22 days, and the evidence of the Tichborne family eventually convinced the jury. The case was closed on 5 March 1872, when Orton's counsel William Ballantine gave up after witnesses described tattoos which Sir Roger had had but Orton did not, and Orton lost his upper-class supporters. Charles Chabot gave evidence as an expert witness on questioned document examination. Orton was promptly arrested and charged with perjury. His criminal trial began in 1873 and lasted 188 days with the judge, again Sir Alexander Cockburn, taking 18 days to sum up. The jury was eventually convinced—based on, for example, testimony by Orton's former girlfriend—that this claimant was false. Orton's defence was led by Edward Kenealy, who would later be disbarred for his aggressive behaviour during the case. Orton was convicted on two counts of perjury on 28 February 1874, and was sentenced to 14 years' hard labour. The legal costs amounted to £200, 000 (at least ten million pounds sterling or twenty million US dollars adjusted currency)
