On 8 January 1913, she was tried at the Old Bailey and sentenced to eight months in Holloway Prison for damaging letters in a postbox. Billinghurst represented herself in court to plead the case for women’s suffrage. Her defense titled "The Guilt Lies on the Shoulders of the Government" was published in "The Suffragette" . She subsequently went on a hunger strike and was force-fed along with the other imprisoned suffragettes participating in the strike. She became so ill that she was released two weeks after her force-feeding began.