Lucy Meares and Sophia Richards - Transported Sisters

Lucy Worsley presents a brand new series – Lady on Trial, where courtroom drama meets history...with a twist.

Lucy and her team of all female detectives are meeting women from the past hauled before the courts for crimes big and small - from murder, adultery and theft, to civil disobedience and the shocking offence of not knowing their place! Were they guilty as charged? Or was their real crime simply being female?

Lucy is joined by the leading criminal barrister Sasha Wass KC, who has worked on many high-profile cases including those of Rosemary West, Johnny Depp and Rolf Harris. With her help, and alongside historian Dr Rose Wallis from the University of the West of England, they’ll be exploring the case of sisters Lucy Meares and Sophia Richards who didn’t get much of a trial at all. But they did get a terrible, terrible punishment - 14 years transportation to the penal colonies of Australia for receiving stolen goods.

Lucy and Sophia are poor, working class women. They have no lawyer and they make few headlines, but these two didn’t take their fate lying down - pushing back and showing agency when they could.

The team will ask why their punishment was so harsh. Did they get condemned for being female and working class? And even today, is it possible that some women still get judged more severely by the law than others?

Producer: Julia Hayball
Readers: Clare Corbett, William Hope, Jonathan Keeble and Ruth Sillers
Historical consultant: Dr Rose Wallis
Head of Production: Claire Myers
Sound design: Chris Maclean
Executive Producer: Kirsty Hunter

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4