The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-03-28 00:00:00

A COWARDLY MURDER.

A young man tinned George Hill, groom, was tried at
the Hertford Awizes on Thursday for the murder of his
child. The circuinstiunres of the case were of a most
painful and at the. same time extraordinary character.
The prisoner wad an the version of a gentleman at Mt.
Alban's as groom, and he formed a connection with a girl
named Sarah Thrussell, about 20 years of age. She gave
birth to a child in January, 1£175, and the offence imputed
to the prisoner was that he had wilfully destroyed the
life of this child. From the time of the birth it appeared
that he had expressed great alarm and annoyance, ard he
was afraid that it would have the effect of injuring him
in the estimation of his master. This feeling was in-
creased when, in June, the mother of the child °Maim.'
an affiliation summons against him. She appeared, how-
ever, to have acted with great consideration towards the
prisoner, for the summons was not served upon him at
his waster's, but an arrangement was made that lie should
receive it at the magistrate's office. He then, it appeared,
promised to marry the mother of the child, the banns
were published at St. Peter's Church, at St. Albans, and
they published
out," salt is termed, on the 27th June. The
sth of July was ti get' for the marriage, and the prisoner
Informed the girl that he had taken a house for her and
furnished it, and that they should go and live there im-
mediately after the marriage. This story was utterly
false, and all the facts in the case tended to show that
the prisoner had formed a deliberate intention to destroy
the life, not only of the child, but of the mother also, in
Order to rid himself of the burden of maintaining
them..

Sarah Thruasell, the young woman referred to, who
gave her evidence with very great propriety and in is most
coming manner, was of course the principal witneu for
the prosecution. She detailed the nature of the circum•
stances that had existed between her and the prisoner,
and spoke to his repeated requests that the should come
and meet him and I,ring the baby with her. They were
to have been married on the Lth of July, and on the
previous evening, whieb was Sonde), she yielded to his
request to bring the child, and it was arranged that she
should go with the prisoner to the house they were to
occupy after the marriage. She said that the prisoner
took her into the middle of a wheat field, and then asked
her to stoop down, because he said he was afraid they
should be seen. The prisoner then put his art round her
neck and forced her down, and at the same instant he
felt a terrible blow on the head. He repeated the blows
till she was nearly insensible, and open her saying to him
"Oh, Ourge, what are you doing r he replied, "/
am
Mint YOU for sending me that piece of paper (in allu-
sion. Si was supposed, to the summons). When she fell
down site saw the prisoner striking the child on the head
with the hammer, and when it was quiet be placed the
child under her clothes. Before the prisoner left he said
to her " Are you nearly goner and she replied "Yes,"
The prisoner then said to her "Can you forgive me what
I have done to your and she said " Yee; go away,' and
the prisoner then left.
The learned Judge having summed up, the Jury retired
for about half an hour to deliberate upon the verdict, and
upon their return Into court the foreman, In an emphatic
Runner, announced that the jury came to the unanimous
conclusion that the prisoner was guilty of wilful murder.
Lord Coleridge then addressed the prisoner, and said
there could be no doubt from the evidence that he was
gutity of • most cruel murder upon this poor Idiot, and
ft was imporible for the jury to have come to any other
decision than they had done. lie then sentenced the pe-
ws., to death.
The prisoner, before he left the bar, exclaimed "I am
thnoonat. I didn't mean to do it, and I did not know I
bed the ihnier in guy head."