Old Bailey trials go online for first time

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - The transcript from Oscar Wilde's trial for gross indecency at London's Old Bailey Court went online for the first time on Monday alongside a raft of murder, robbery and abduction cases.

Up for free examination are 110,000 pages of transcripts -- including Wilde's trial and the notorious story of Dr Crippen and the murder of his wife.

Lurid tales of murder and rape, stories of pickpocketing and robbery -- every type of crime was paraded before the London court, which is topped by a statue of Justice with a sword in one hand and scales in the other.

The www.oldbaileyonline.org site was billed as the largest single source of searchable historical information about British lives that has ever been published.

The transcripts cover every one of the 210,000 trials held at the Old Bailey from 1674 to 1913, from just after The Great Fire that ravaged London to just before the outbreak of World War One. The court is still in operation.

As well as chronicling a string of sensational trials, the records also list the biographical details of about 3,000 men and women executed at the notorious Tyburn gallows in London.

"Until now, this treasure trove of social, legal and family history has only been available to a few dedicated historians who were prepared to spend months peering at microfilms," said Professor Tim Hitchcock, a co-director of the project.

The Web site is being published by the Humanities Research Institute and is a joint project by the British Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire along with the Open University.