Editing Edward Carson (section)

=== Oscar Wilde ===

{{Main|Oscar Wilde#Trials|l1=Oscar Wilde trials}}

[[File:Edward Carson Vanity Fair 9 November 1893.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Carson addressing Parliament as depicted in ''[[Vanity Fair (UK magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' in 1893]]

In 1895, he was engaged by the [[John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry|Marquess of Queensberry]] to lead his defence against [[Oscar Wilde]]'s action for [[criminal libel]].<ref name=":0" /> The Marquess, angry at Wilde's ongoing homosexual relationship with his son, [[Lord Alfred Douglas]], had left his calling card at Wilde's club with an inscription accusing Wilde of being a "posing [[Sodomy|somdomite]]" {{Sic}}. Wilde retaliated with a libel action, as homosexuality was, at the time, illegal.

[[Kevin Myers]] states that Carson's initial response was to refuse to take the case. Later, he discovered that Queensberry had been telling the truth about Wilde's activity and was therefore not guilty of the libel of which Wilde accused him.<ref>{{cite news |first=Kevin |last=Myers |date=20 March 2009 |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/edward-carson-and--oscar-wilde--mythic-rewriting-of-history-drives-me-wild-14237022.html |title=Edward Carson and Oscar Wilde – mythic rewriting of history drives me wild |newspaper=Belfast Telegraph}}</ref>

Carson portrayed the playwright as a morally depraved hedonist who seduced naïve young men into a life of homosexuality with lavish gifts and promises of a glamorous artistic lifestyle. He impugned Wilde's works as morally repugnant and designed to corrupt the upbringing of the youth{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}. Queensberry spent a large amount of money on [[private detective]]s who investigated Wilde's activity in the London underworld of homosexual clubs and procurers.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Wilde abandoned the case when Carson announced in his opening speech for the defence that he planned to call several [[male prostitute]]s who would testify that they had had sex with Wilde, which would have rendered the libel charge unsupportable as the accusation would have been proven true{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}. Wilde was [[bankrupt]]ed when he was then ordered to pay the considerable legal and detective bills Queensberry had incurred in his defence.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Based on the evidence of Queensberry's detectives and Carson's cross-examinations of Wilde at the trial, Wilde was subsequently prosecuted for [[Labouchere Amendment|gross indecency]] in a second trial. He was eventually found guilty and sentenced to two years' [[hard labour]], after which he moved to France, where he died penniless.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}