wider church in addition to himself. Newman asked Wiseman for whatever documentary evidence he possessed but Wiseman, unworldly at the best of times, was distracted by other matters and could offer nothing. In November 1851, Achilli swore an affidavit denying the allegations made against him. This enabled him to bring criminal proceedings for the common law offence of defamatory libel against Newman, rather than a simple civil action for damages. Newman was liable to maximum sentence of an unlimited fine or a year's imprisonment. The trial began on 21 June and lasted five days. The Attorney-General Sir Frederic Thesiger led for the prosecution, assisted by Solicitor-General Sir Fitzroy Kelly. Newman was supported by a formidable team of lawyers led by Sir Alexander Cockburn and including sympathetic Anglo-Catholic Edward Lowth Badeley. Henry Matthews had advised Newman to plead justification, that the allegations were true, and the English libel law put the burden of proof on Newman. Newman sent a deputation abroad to gather evidence and they returned with some of Achilli's victims from Italy and Malta, willing to give evidence. However, the presiding judge, John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell, refused the witnesses' testimony and allegedly fuelled the jury's prejudice against Newman. Judge Campbell was the first judge to admit a document from the Roman Inquisition as evidence in an English court. Newman was convicted of libel on 25 June 1852. It was found that he had failed to justify 22 of the 23 charges. On 31 January 1853, he was fined £100 (). His £12,000 legal costs () were borne by an international public subscription among Catholics. Judge John Taylor Coleridge later wrote to Keble:It is a very painful matter for us who must hail this libel as false, believing it is in great part true—or at least that it may be. After the trial A leading article in The Times summarised liberal opinion when it described the proceedings as: The outcome of the trial was a Pyrrhic victory for Achilli whose reputation was ruined by his accusers. He travelled to the US in 1853 with the Swedenborgians and worked for the American Bible Union on translating the New Testament into Italian. He sent his wife to Italy and, in 1859 found himself in court accused of adultery with a Miss Bogue. In 1860, he disappeared, leaving his eldest son, aged eight, to the care of Miss Bogue. A note written