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The Arthur Coningham Conspiracy

If you think complicated divorces that eventually wind up in the courtroom are restricted to the litigious times we live in right now, then think again. At the beginning of last century Australia was treated to a court case that had the lot…and then some. The characters included a Test cricketer, his beautiful English wife, adultery, blackmail and even an Irish Catholic priest. They’d even have trouble topping that these days.

It became known worldwide as the Coningham Conspiracy and is one of the most famous divorce cases in our legal history. As the sordid details were published daily in the press the case divided the readers – some choosing to side with the handsome inter­national cricketer and others taking the side of the kindly priest.

The Coningham Conspiracy began at the end of 1900, when famous cricketer Arthur Coningham claimed that his beautiful English-born wife had repeatedly committed adultery with the handsome Irish-born priest Reverend Dr Denis Francis O’Haran, and began divorce proceedings.

Reverend O’Haran was well respected in the community as the administrator of Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral and was private secretary to Cardinal Moran. For their part, The Coninghams seemed to be the perfect young couple. Arthur Coningham was a Test cricketer who had represented Australia when they toured England seven years earlier. Coningham, a chemist when he wasn’t playing cricket, had married the much-pursued Alice Dowling in March 1893 at the Bondi Church of England the day before he sailed for England with the Australian team. By 1899 the happy young couple had three children.

So Sydneysiders were shocked when local hero Arthur Coningham filed for divorce in late 1900. They were even more mortified when it was rumoured that Coningham was to name the Reverend O’Haran as the co-respondent and claim £5000 damages. It was said that Mr Coningham also wanted custody of his two eldest children, claiming he didn’t want the youngest as he alleged that his wife had told him the child wasn’t his, and that the real father was in fact the Reverend O’Haran.

But before Arthur Coningham actually lodged the official petition for divorce in court outlining the alleged circumstances and subsequent demands, he sent a letter to the Reverend O’Haran’s boss, Cardinal Moran. In it he hinted that an outrageous scandal that would cause endless damage to the Church could be avoided if he, Cardinal Moran, agreed to a settlement out of court – all of the sordid allegations would go away.

Outraged, and seeing the thinly disguised blackmail attempt for exactly what it was, Cardinal Moran went immediately to the police. After careful examination of the letter, the police told His Excellence that due to the clever wording of the threats there was little they could do to prove it was blackmail. The divorce trial would go ahead. The petition with all of its juicy details was lodged and the public waited in sordid anticipation for early December, when proceedings would begin in front of Mr Justice Simpson.

Arthur Coningham’s case was based entirely on his wife’s signed admission that she had been having an affair with the Reverend O’Haran. Even more shocking was the allegation that the infidelities took place inside St Mary’s Cathedral. The public gallery gasped at the horror of it all. It was also alleged that Alice Coningham’s third child was named Vincent Francis after the Reverend Denis Francis O’Haran, the child’s alleged father.

When called to the witness stand to give evidence, Mrs Coningham not only admitted to having the torrid affair with the reverend, but also gave times and places where the lovemaking had taken place. Much to the disappointment of the court reporters, she stopped just short of giving the exact intimate details, though it appeared she would have if the court had asked her to. She was a very credible witness.

Under cross-examination by the Reverend O’Haran’s counsel, Jack Want, who was the Perry Mason of the time, Alice Coningham convincingly denied that she was party to a conspiracy with her husband in an attempt to blackmail the Church at the expense of the reputation of an innocent man of the cloth.

Then it was the Reverend O’Haran’s turn in the witness box. He vehemently denied all of the charges of sin and adultery levelled against him. He was saddened to think that anyone could accuse him of doing such things in his church. Arthur Coningham elected to cross-examine the reverend himself in an attempt to trap him into an admission but try as he may, the Reverend O’Haran held his ground and admitted to nothing, saying over and over that there was nothing to admit to and that the charges against him were absolutely untrue and ungodly to boot.

With the evidence of two totally credible witnesses before them, the jury retired to consider its verdict. With Sydney evenly divided on the outcome, it was even money which way it would go. After 12 hours the jury had to admit that they were divided equally down the middle and couldn’t possibly arrive at a result. Much to the delight of Sydney’s gossipmongers, Mr Justice Simpson took the only course of action that the law allowed, dismissing the jury and calling for a second trial.

But this time the Reverend O’Haran decided that if he couldn’t prove his own innocence in the eyes of God then he would go about it another way – he would prove the Coninghams’ guilt. For the forthcoming second trial the reverend employed the services of solicitor WP Crick, who was also the NSW Postmaster General and had a reputation as an investigator that was second to none in the country. Mr Crick had an equally devious sidekick named Dan Green, and together the pair looked deep into the activities of Alice and Arthur Coningham.

Dan Green quickly discovered that not only were the Coninghams on very friendly terms, given the circumstances, but they were clandestinely meeting and sleeping together at a farm just out of Sydney. Green also discovered letters the pair had written to each other, which told in detail of their plot to concoct evidence against the reverend and exploit the church.

At the second trial, which began in March 1901, Arthur Coningham was bombarded time and again with the new evidence and at one stage he became so desperate that he pulled a revolver and pointed it at the reverend, declaring that he should shoot him on the spot for ruining his marriage to the woman he loved. He was quickly disarmed and the one-sided trial was allowed to continue to its inevitable result. The jury returned a unanimous verdict in favour of the Reverend O’Haran.

Disgraced and in danger of being charged with conspiring to commit blackmail, the Coninghams wisely left Sydney and moved to New Zealand. Soon after, Mr Coningham was caught in the act of adultery and his wife divorced him. The Reverend Dr O’Haran’s reputation remained intact and he worked out the rest of his life at his beloved St Mary’s Cathedral.