Probably the most successful lawyer of his day, a promoter of the appeals court, Chief Baron of the Exchequer - Sir Fitzroy is remembered these days for his defense of the poisoner John Tawell.. In February 1845 at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, John Tawell; a rich and supposedly respectable Quaker, had been arrested for the murder of Sarah Hart, his alleged mistress. He had sent for the best lawyer that money could buy and Sir Fitzroy, after hearing Tawell's testimony, duely pronounced his client 'innocent of all charges'.

When the trial commenced on Wednesday the 12th March 1845, the excitement in Aylesbury was intense; the tiny courtroom stuffed to the rafters with an eager local crowd and newspaper reporters sent up from London to cover the case. There was nothing the Victorians liked better than a gruesome murder, and if it involved a supposedly pious man and his secret mistress, so much the better. Judge Baron Parke took his seat on the bench at nine o'clock sharp, and Sergeant Byles opened the case against Tawell, detailing Sarah Hart's postmortem results and confirming her death as due to the consumption of a small amount of the poison prussic acid. He then particularized Tawell's relationship with the deceased and their long affair. He paid special attention to Tawell's knowledge of medicinal potions and their ingredients, (Tawell had worked as a chemist in Australia), and tendered the prosecutions first evidence, a bottle of Steele's Acid - one of two purchased by the accused on the day of the murder from Mr Hughes the chemist of Bishop's-Gate Street, London. A principle ingredient of Steele's Acid, a treatment for varicose veins, was prussic acid. When Sir Fitzroy stood to his feet to commence the defense, he did so with a single word - 'Applepips'. He went on to explain that, Sarah Hart's post mortem had revealed a number of applepips in her stomach. Investigations by the defense had discovered that Miss Hart had received a sack of apples as a Christmas present from a friend, and that she had consumed a large amount of the fruit during the festive season; thereby Sir Fitzroy insisted, ingesting the prussic acid.

'In no other substance in nature, excepting bitter almonds, do you find such a concentration of the poison.'

It was a bizarre defense and caught the publics' imagination. Soon everyone was talking about the case and of the flamboyant defense lawyer 'Applepip' Kelly. Newspapers sales rocketed, 'Penny Dreadfulls' detailed the gruesome facts of prussic acid poisoning, and large wagers were made on the trial's outcome. But across Britain, markets were left full of rotting fruit as an apple scare swept the nation. James Tawell was found guilty of the murder of Sarah Hart and went to the gallows on the 11th April 1845, and fruit growers heaved a huge sigh of relief. But.... was he guilty as charged? Tune in to this extraordinary tale of murder and intrigue for the answer...

Airdate: 11th June 1997