The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-08-01 00:00:00

MURDERER.
SCENE IN COURT.

Friday morning, William Fish, 20, barber, was placed
at the bar on a charge of wilfully murdering tinily
Holland, aged seven years, at Blackburn, on the 28th of
March.

The case has all along excited intense interest, and
between eight and nine o'clock this morning, on the steps
in front of the St. George's hall, a crowd had assembled.
The police arrangements, however, were such that no one
was admitted except thore who had business in the court
and a few of the favoured public The Crown Court is
not at all fitted for a great trial, inasmuch as the
accommodation is by no means good. The back benches
were filled ty a mixed crowd, and right in front of the
barristers' seats were some fifty reporters front all puts
of the country. The members of the press were placed at
a considerable disadvantage, inasmuch as there was but
little room for them, and the acoustic properties of the
room was very detective. In the comilors outside the
court were many fashionably-dressed ladies, who in vain
attempted to obtain entrance. It was well that they were
refused admission, as the disgusting details of such • case
are not fit for the ear of any woman.
Precisely at ten o'clock Mr. Justice Lindley entered the
court, and shortly after Fish was placed in the dock. He
does not seem to have altered much since he occupied •
similar position in the Blackburn Town Hall in April,
when he was formally committed for trial. He was
regarded with considerable curiosity by all present, and
his appearance was very much commented en. He was
dressed in the same suit of seedy black cloth which he
wore when arrested. It was his Sunday attire, as it was
on the Sabbath that he was taken into custody. His
pallid face, with the deeply-sunken eyes, looked a little
inure cadaverous perhaps, and there was a look of shriek-
ing pain, not terror exectly, but more of physical discom-
fort and intense anxiety. Ile came forward to the front
I of the dock perfectly sell-possessed, and, resting his hands
on the iron rail, which was nearly level with his chair, bp
turned his face towards the jury, and remained impassive
while their names were called over and they were sworn.
He seemed perfectly to realize his position, and as the
trial proceed the look of eager and painful anxiety
deepened on his face. Thursday, it will be remembered
that he pleaded guilty, but added that " he did not know
what he was doing at the time,- and this of course
amounted to a plea of "net guilty." With the im-
partiality which distinguishes the administration of the
English law the learned Judge instructed counsel to
defenill him, and Mr. Harrison Blair appeared for him.
The counsel fur the prosecution Were Mr. Hig-in,
Mr. Pope, q.c,, and Mr. Addison, and for the defence
Mr. Blair. .

The charge against the prisoner was that of the wilful
murder of the little girl, between seven and eight years of
age, named Emily Mary Holland, on the •Isth of March.
The child WWI the daughter of a mechanic, who lived in
moss-street, in Blackburn. The prisoner carried on the
business of a barber and hairdresser, he supposed in a
small way, in a shop in the same street, hut he and hit
wife and family resided in a different part of the town,
and at some distance iron' the shop. It therefore must
necessarily have followed that there must have lieen times
during the day during which, having no assistant or any-
one to help him in the business, he would have to lock up
his shop to go home. The child Emily Holland attended
the Roman Catholic school attached to the church of St.
Alban's in Blackburn, and the father, who was engaged
in a factory on the Stith of March, never saw her alive
after eight o'clock in the morning. She went to school in
the morning, and returned home to dinner at the usual
hour, and it would be important for the jury to remember,
with a view to the identity of the remains which had been
discovered, what it was the child had for dinner. On that
day it appeared that she had sonic ham sad potatoes with
the peel on, arid some pudding or tart. The child in
Question came by her death not later than six hours after
she must have had her last meal. After the child had had
dinner she went back to school, and remained there till
somewhere about • quarter-past four in the &Hanks:in. I
On her way back from school she was seen in !
the neighbourhood of the prisoner's shop, and '
there could be no doubt that she was sent by the
prisoner to a tobacconist's shop to purchase for
hint threepennyworth of tobacco. l•roui the time
she was seen in Moss-street, in the neighbourhood of the
prisoner's shop, in the afternoon of the tath of 3darch, she
was never seen alive again by anybody. The girl not
returning home her parents became alarmed, and infor-
mation was given to the police. Suspicion fell on many
persons, and the tramp Taylor was arrested, hut eventually
discharged. The remains of a child were found in a field
wrappe, in a ro'sfon Here,' near Bastwell Park. They
were examined by the medical men, and short hair., were
found adhering to the flesh. Suspicion fell upon Fish,
kfroroomm.rre6Thtlnd
and his shop Waa searchod, without, however, anything
wovith,
wrish.eo,:tic:iges,y
being found. Nothing more trans_ffired until the Pith of
one partly a bloodhound. He was accorupained hy the
pon the owner of them put his head and shoulders
to the prisoner's shop, and the dogs began to search,
got there, thweerent, ugave indications that there was something, and
police-office. Upon a further search being
up the chimney, and he brought dome part of the charred
wheniniatap:nreianntocaia:
skull of a little child, and also some bones. Upon that
the
prisoner wits immediatelv given into custody and
titeentlinffetnoexthtemorniruf in the chimney, there were found
other reinaius of bu..nit bones. and particularly one piece
of bone with a poruon of brains adhering to it. Those
remains were then handed over to the doctors, and the
jury would have theiropinion upon them. Upon again
removing the coals that were under the stairs there was
discovered part of the dress of a little child,
and that dress would be identified by the friends
and relations of the little girl as being part of
the dress she wore on that particular and fatal day
Moreover, before the finding of the remains at Cualiffe
Farm and Bastwell, the prisoner was seen coining towards
Blackburn, and from the direction of Cunliffe Farm.
With reference to identifying the child the mother spoke
to a peculiar mark upon the girl's back, and also to the
overlapping of some of her toes. The prisoner was
brought before the magistrates, and atm his examination
he was remanded and taken down to the cells below the
court, He was in charge of an officer named Parkinson,
and voluutarily to that officer he made the following
stattinent,:7

-7.l.l.7lll;onstable William Parkinson that I had burnt
part of the clothes, and put the other part under the coals
in my shop, and I now wish to say that I am gu'Jts af the
murder. I further wish to say that 1 don't want the
innocent to sutler. At a few minutes amer five o'clock in
the evening I was standing at my shop door in Moss.
street, when the deceased child came past. She MIN going
up litoes•street I asked her to bring me one half ounce
tobacco from Cox's shop. Ste went and brought it to
me. I &eked her to go into my shop. She did. I askisi
her to go upstairs, and she did. I went up with her. I
tried to abuse her, and she was nearly dead. I then cut
her throat with a razor. This was in the front rom.. mar
the fire. I then carried her body downst:ars into the
shop, cut off her head, anus, and legc. wrapped up the
body in nowspapers on the doer, wrapped up the legs also
in newspapers and put those parcels into a box in the
back kitchen. The arms and head I put in the tire. On
the Wednesday after I took the parcel containing the legs
to Lower Cwiliffe, and at nine o'clock that night I took
the parcel containing the body to a field at Bastwell r.nd
threw it over the wall. on Fnday afternoon I burnt part
of the clothing. On the Wednesday morning I took a
part of the head which was uuburnt and put it up the
chimney in the front bedroom. I further wish to say
that I did all myself. No other person had anything to
do with it. The foregoing statement has been read over
to me, and is correct. It is my voluntary statement, and
before I made it I was told that it would be taken down
in writing and given in evidence against use.
The Jury consulted for about half a minute, and the tore-
n.so then in replying to the Clerk of the Crown (Mr.
Shuttleworth), said they had agreed upon their verdict.
The Clerk of the Crown: Do you Mut the ',risottos.,
William Fish, guilty of murder or not guilty
The Foreman :Guilty.

'ij
CfM7k—oi the -Critiwn You say that lie is guilty.
That is your verdict Turning to the prisoner, he said :
I William Fish, you are duly convicted of wilful murder.
' What have you now to say why the Court should not
proceed to pass sentence of death upon you according to
law /
The prisoner, who, beyond a nervous clutching of the
rail in front of the dock, betrayed no emotion, loads
reply; and, silence having been milled, the Judge placed
upon his head the black cap, and was proceeding to pass
sentence of death when the prisoner said, "My Lord,
and gentlemen of the jury At the time I did it I really
did not know what I was doing. It came over me all at
once. I never had such a thought in my head when I sent
the girl far the tobacco."
The Judge: William Fish, I cannot accept that plea.
You have been found guilty of this murder, and for this
murder you must die. I shall not harrow your feelings by
dwelling upon it, but simply perform my duty by passing '
upon you that sentence which it is my duty to pronounce.
The learned Judge then passed sentence of death in the
usual form, adding "And may the Lord have mercy upon
your soul."

.-he—p-rlsoner was immediately removed from the dock
by the warders.

IT WOULD Hi AS WELL for the reader to make a note of
the following. There are now in circulation remarkable
specimens of the °ain't' • arts, in the shape of a sovereign
of base metal corresponding so exactly in weight, colour,
ring, and cutting with the genuine coin as to deceive even
many practised bankers. It bears the Queen's head,
seemingly a little flattened by wear, with the slide lnEsi,
and on the obverse the shield and crown. The nulling,
though somewhat marred in the specimen before us by
experimental filling and clipping, appears to be admirably
executed; but on a close inspection of the lettering Rowe
slight flaw, are observable in the formation. more espe-
cially of this letter "N." The colour is just shade paler
than that of the English severe*, resembling more that
of the Australian gold coins; end the metal being what is
termed platinum gold, is of the manse colour throulihout
The only obvious (Wan:Wiens between this conserfeit and
the genuine sovereign are that the forwer is very slightly
larger, and that the ring DT tone is a little sharper than
that of pure gold. We understand that the cost of the
base sovexelipui contiot be lees than its, oach.—/Urrainsg-
Aant Peet.

——-- - -
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