Falsely accused woman freed after 70 years

[Nutmegger]

Seventy years locked up in institutions hardly seems to be a punishment that befits the crime of stealing half-a-crown.

However, it is just such a fate that befell Jean Gambell when at the age of 15, in 1937, she was falsely accused of stealing 2s 6d (12.5p) from the doctor's surgery where she worked as a cleaner.

She was sectioned under the 1890 Lunacy Act and even though the money was later found, she has been moved from mental institution to mental institution. More recently, she went into a care home and has been lost to her family, who thought she was dead.

But last month, by chance, her brother stumbled across correspondence which led to the discovery of her existence and the family was reunited.

Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/29/nfree129.xml

[DS1]

1. stunning

[lligrd]

2. Unfriggenbelievable

She lost nearly her entire life over being wrongly accused of petty theft. There is no way to correct this wrong.

[Kagemusha]

3. That seems to have merely been how it started.

She was declared of "feeble mind" and therefore she was put in mental institutions, not purely as punishment, but, well, when she tried to prove she had a family, no one believed her since, after all, she was "nuts" to begin with. So the government "cared" for her all this time. I'm sure the UK considers that more humane than simply putting her out onto the street, even though the original accusation was false.

It's still wrong...

[Odin2005]

4. This was a huge problem with institutionalization in ages past.

Many people got institutionalized when they shouldn't of because of the "he/she is nuts so we can't believe anything he/she says" vicious cycle of circular reasoning.

[xchrom]

5. can't get much more horrifying than that. nt

[Window]

6. Oh. My. God!

That's just damned disgusting.




Peace:thumbsup:

[ContraBass Black]

7. Supplying her the ultimate luxuries in any area she might imagine

For the rest of her life would not even begin to make up for it.

[applegrove]

8. Unbelievable. I hope she is healy enough to enjoy her years with family.

[flashl]

9. She is remarkable.

"I am sure that what has kept her going all these years was the challenge of proving to the authorities that she had a family. The trouble was, nobody would listen to her."