The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-11-15 00:00:00

ROBBERY OF AN EMPLOYER,

Oa Friday lasi Alfred Hicks, a young man in the
employ of Ur. A. Green. builder. wan discovered to
lime stolen two pieces of 'Jiu. by 4in. deal, one 17 feet
long, an I the other 11 feet, from his master's Umber
yard. ti. Green a, ;cued him, when he confessed,
awl ca ~2 it: had taken the ether to Mr. Mayor's
proini-cz. I.le was given into custody. Next John
C'lnrchill, journeyman carpenter, was apprehended for
receiving the timber, and was brought up on Tuesday
b ire Lord Portman. and J. J. Farquharson, Rai.,
when Hicks stated that on the 27th October
Churchill asked him whether he could get
him some stuff, meaning deal plank. He replied
tbrt ho did not like to do it. Churchill then said Try
your hand on it, and the same evening he (Hicks) stole
the plank from Mr. Green's store yard in Rast-street,
and plac..,d it on Ur. Mayor's pre.a.ass. He saw
Chnrch'll afterwards, and told him where be had put
It, and ho gave him 2s. for it.—Sapt. Underwood
sperchendod prisoner on Sunday night, and be showed
witness where it was, The plank had been sawn into
five pieces. —Mr. Groan identified it as his property.—
Jessie Raster sawyer' said that be sawed up the plank
•
by Churohill s thrections.—Prisoner was eciansnitted for
trial at the quarter sessions, but was admitted to ball
himself in £2O, and one surety of 220.—The prisoner
Hicks, who had been remanded on a sharp of stealing
two pieces of deal from Mr. Green's yard, pleaded
gulty, and as he had been in the lock-up several days,
and gave evidence against Churshill, he was Medlar
with a caution as to his future conduct. He was
bound over to give evidence against Churchill at the
quarter sessions,

CHILD MURDER AT WEST LULA ORTH.
On Wednesday a young woman, named Hannah
Williams wee employed to claim an naoompied oottev,
belonging to Mr. Barnes's milli. In tile course of the
morning Williams, the miller, heard groans and the cry
of an infant in the oottage. He asked what wee the
m tint, and she said nothing and that there was no
noise. Ho went up-stairs, and found blood on the floor
and again heard theory of • child. Hs asked her where it
WM, and she denied there was • ohild there. He leashed
Mrs. Hoed, and on searching they found a dead infant
in • pettieott behind the dog's kenneL Mr. Grainger,
surgeon, was called, and made a post-mortem examina-
tion of Cie child. At the inquest on Thursday. before
H. Lick, Esq., he said he found it to be full-grown,
and wie satisfied the ohild lived during and after birth.
On removing the scalp he found that all the bone, of
the skull wcro fractured, the membrane torn across, in
fact the skull and the brain were all mixed together_.
it w a complete jolly. Extreme violence must have
been sand. No fail tiould have produced such marks ;
a blunt instrument might have done It ; or the beating
of the head against the floor: or stamping upon it He
bad no doubi that the blows had been repeated, and
that death had been instantaneous. P.C. Freeborn,
of Rut Lulworth, stated that Hannah Williams ad-
initlud to him, at her father's house, where he took
her into custxly, that the child was alive when II was
born. She also said that "it pitched on the vessel"
when sh., wripped it in her petticoat. Hoc uncle, she
added, emu° in, and in order that he might not see It
she ran out at the back of the house with it in her
Cr,,,.. beliorina It was still alive. She kleked her
foot against the sill of the door and fell down, the
child with her. She then put it behind the dog's
hose. Sho did not know whether it WU alive at
that time. Hannah Williams was committed for trial
at rho assi the coroner's warrant charged with
•` masaer."