The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-03-06 00:00:00

A BOLD CRIME, AND A JUST
PUNISHMENT.

At the Warwick Assizes, Thomas Cainell has been charged
with having thrown a quality of creosote in the eyes of the
guard of a train, and stolen X 65 ss. dd., the property of the
London and North-Western Railway Company. This was a
very r,markalile case, looth in the nature of the crime com-
mitted and in the character of the evidence by which the
charge was supported.

~.
The prisoner, who has always borne a very good
character, and was treasurer to a society formed by
the platelayers upon the line, was employed by the
company as flagman to the ballast trains, and had been
employed by the company for many years. He was a
very active man, and was remarkable for the dexterity
with which he could jump from a train while in motion.
The money received at the various stations between 1
Stafford and Birmingham is placed in small bags and I
put in a wooden box about two feet square in the I
guard's van at the end of the last train at night to I
Birmingham. On the night in question the train, with I
the money all safe, left the Edgbaston station for the
New-street station, Birmingham, a distance of one mile, I
at 11'55 at night. About 200 yards from the station, before 1
the train had attained its full speed, the guard of the train I
was blinded suddenly by a qnantity of creosote being
thrown in his face. He Raw no one, and heard no
noise. He was at first overpowered and so blinded
that he could not see at all, but before the train arrheil
at New-street he discovered that the box containing
the money-bags was gone and the lamp by which he
had been writing was gone also. On tie floor of the
van he picked up the lid of a tin such ss men at work
on the line are accustomed to use. Before the trsin
left the Edgbaston station the fireman of the train had
noticed a man dressed in a coat such as the ballast-men
generally wear, walking along the off-side of the train
towards the guard's van. He believed that this
man was the prisoner, but he did not see his
face. On the off-step of the carriage next to
the van and upon both the buffers and upon
the step of the van upon the near side were
marks as of sandy boots, and the railroad on the off-
side of the train was of sandy soil. The door of the
van was open while the train was in motion, the doors
opening inwards. The guard sat with his back to this
door and close to the door upon the opposite side of the
can against which the mouey-box was placed, At the
distance of about 250 yards from the Edgbaston
station, and close to the line, the money-box was found
broken open, and the money-bags gone. There were
foot-marks, showing clearly that some one had jumped
from the train a few yards further on. At a sand pit
some little distance off nineteen of the money-bags
were found cut open, and on the top of a pigsty not
far from the prisoner's house one of the bags was found
with a clock weight in it. The pigsty Wla, close to the
edge of a canal. The prisoner had gone with his train
as usual on the morning in question, and it had stopped
at Northampton for about an hour, during which he
had gone into the town and had purchased from
a chymist is. worth of creosote, which he placed in a
glass bottle and corked the bottle.. Upon the complaint
of the guard, the stationmaster at New-street and two
detectives went to the prisoner's house at one o'clock in
1 ' the morning. The primmer came down from his room
as if just out of bed. Upon being asked if he had any
money in hia house he replied, " About k 25," and said