The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-03-15 00:00:00

POACHING AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

At the Chelmsford Assizes, the sentences on the prisoners
convicted of the offence of night poaching had been reserved
until the last of the cases hat been tried, and the last cue
was tried on Saturday morning.
. .
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There were four cages of poaching, each including
several men, the offence being one which in general
is committed by parties of three or more ; and
though there were only ten prisoners tried for the
offence, there were several more who hail not been
apprehended. In one care, in which a keeper was
killed, three men—Burdock, Miller, and Challis—
were tried, and they were all convicted of night
poaching. The first was also tried for murder and
acquitted. This was the Braxted case. Then
there was a case at Mountneseing, the estate of Lord
Petre, in which five men were engaged; but only two
were taken, and these, on their trial were acquitted on
a doubt as to their identity, being spoken to only by
one keeper, and an alibi being proved by several wit-
nesses. Then there was a case at Ramsden Crays, in
which five men were engaged, and four were taken and
convicted. Lastly there was a case on the estate of
Sir Thomas Western at Rivenhall, in which several
men were engaged; but only one was taken, and he
was tried on Saturday.
Alexander Cowell, described as a groom, 29 years; of
age, Iva, indicted for night poaching in January—that
is, for being out in the night armed with a gun, with
divers other persons, in the pursuit of game on the
estate of Sir Thomas Western at Itivenhall.
On the night of the 6th of January, between eleven
and one o'clock in the morning, two keepers—a head
keeper and an under-keeper—were out in the woods
watching for poachers. A band of six poachers, armed
with guns and sticks, came by, apparently, they said,
headed by the prisoner, who had worked on the estate
and was well known by the name of "Racer." The
keepees rushed out and attacked them, the head keeper
at once seizing, he said, the prisoner and endeavouring
to secure him ; the under-keeper engaging some of the
others. The principal struggle was between the pri-
soner and the head keeper, who clung to him closely
for several minutes and rolled with him on the ground.
Toe keeper heard one of the poachers cry out, '` Shoot
them F' A gun was fired while these two were struggling
together on the ground. Tao of the poachers came up
and belaboured the keeper with sticks, lie had to
defend himself as well as he could with his stock, and,
of course, list his man ; hut he swore to him positively.
Other men came up and set upon the keeper, who re-
ceived a tremendous blow on his head, as, he believed,
from the barrel of a gun. This blow was so severe that
it deprived him for some eeconds of his sight. In the
meantime he received Bei eral other blows, and a sods)
cried, "Out with your knife arid finish him !" He
struggled from them and got into a wood, and the men
then left him. The keeper found himself covered
with blood, which was pouring profusely from
w muds in the head. He VMS confined to his bed
for a fortnight, and had not even now recovered
his strength. He sent for the police, and appeared
to have named the prisoner, though by his nick-
name, which he heard from an under keeper. The
under-keeper confirmed this, and more positively to the
prisoner as the leading man, and as calling out to the
others " Come on ; come on !" The prisoner, he said,
had been employed on the estate, and be knew him
well, b ith by face and voice. The prisoner was appre-
hended next day at Braintree, about five miles off,
where he lived, and his clothes and boote, at least all
that could lie seen, were dry ; but then it appeared
that he hail been out that morning] before the pi 'lice
arrived. He protested his innocence, and did so before
the magistrates. The cross examination by his counsel
was directed entirely to the question of identity, and
two witneeses were called to prove an alibi, at Brain
tree, five miles off ; but one of the witnesses] only
proved it up to eleven o'clock, and the other WM a
woman who lived with the prisoner as hie wife, and
swore that he slept with her on the night in question,
and swore positively that he was not out that night.
The L ird Chief Justice, in summing up the case to
the jury, observed that one of the witnesses fir the
alibi— the woman—must be regarded with distrust;
and if the had been the man's wife she could net
have been called on his lush elf. As to the other wit-
new., his evidence only we-nt up to eleven o'clock,
and was not inconsistent with the case fir the prose-
cution. On the other hand, the evidence of the
kem ere we no doubt honest, and both swore posi-
tively to the man's identity. On the whole of the
evidence the jury must make up their minds as well
as they could. If they were quite satisfied of the
identity of the prisoner, they would give effect to that
conviction; but if they felt a real doubt, then they
wordil acquit him.
The jury, after consulting together for some time,
retie ed to consider their verdict, and after an abeeuce
of half an hour returned into court with a verdict
of
Tide made the tight men who had been convicted of
the offence at these dealers out of ten men charged and
a larger number actually engaged in these affrays. Tne
nrisonera convicted were now all brought up together
to be maenad.

The Lord Chief Justice proceeded in most impressive
terms and tone to pees the sentences upon them as
follows : -You, Cowell (who had last been tried), have
been convicted of the offence of night poaching —that
offence whish has latterly become very prevalent in
this county, and has been attended in several ins ances
with violence inflicted on the keeper.. Indeed, in one
mese it resulted in the death of one of those men, who
was simply discharging his duty. You have been
found guilty in a case in which the keepers were
treated with brutal violence and ft:rocity by the
men whom thy encountered, and you have been
convicted of being one of a band of eix who were out
on that night and inflicuoil this cruel violence on the
keepers. lam determined, so long as I take a part
in the administration of justice, whenever I am called
upon to paps sentence upon those who commit such
outrages, and who treat the keepers with brutal and
cruel violence -I am determined to make examples of
them, that others may be warned against similar coo.
duct. You and several others, being more powerful in
point of number and unscrupulous in conduct, beat
two of the keeper. with severity, and inflicted upon
the head keeper a blood which might have been at-
tended with fatal consequence.. Your sentence is that
for this your offence you be Impt in penal servitude for
five years, and think yourself fortunate that no more
serious consequences resulted from the violence of which
you and the others were guilty—consequences which
might have called upon you to answer for your lives.
Burdock (who was acquitted on the charge of murder),
you have confessed yourself guilty of the offence
of night poaching, which, in your case, was ac-
companied with fearful consequences. You have had
to answer far the blood of a fellow-creature, and
though the jury have taken a merciful view of your
case and m quitted you of the crime of wilful murder,
you hive the blood of • fellow creature upon )our
hands to answer for hereafter, if not here. You are
an old offender. You have been in the habit of going
poaching for many along day, and have been again and
again im Jrisoned for that offence; and though the jury
ha.

ye not. had before them, as they could na have fiC-
cording to law, the words you uttered at the time your
gun went off and caused the wound from which the
unfortunate man died, I have those words before me.
If they could have been received in evidence before
the jury they might have led to a different result;
you might have been found guilty of the crime
of wilful murder, and if you had been, it would
have been my duty to pass upon you the awful
sentence of death, and most assuredly I should
have left you here for execution. But a merciful
view was taken of your case by the jury, possibly
because they had not those words in evidence before
them which you are known to have uttered at the
time your gun went off, and which satify me that if
you did not intend death or grievous injury to that
unhappy man, you were reckless as to the conse-
quences of the diecharge of your weapon. Looking at
this fact, and looking at the fearful consequences
which have ensued in the death of another man from
your act, and looking at the life you have hitherto
been leadirg, your frequent repetition of offences of
this character, I cannot pass a lighter sentence upon
you than five years' penal servitude. Yon two other
men, Miller and Challis (companions of Burdock on
the fatal night), you were out on the same occasion,
but you used no violence, nor had you any weapon
with you; and I believe you were only induced to go
out in order to (waist this man in poaching, and with
no intention of offering violence to the keepers. But
you see what comes of those nightly expeditions ;
on see what comes of this habitual violation of
the law. You see bow human life becomes the sacri-
fice, and how a.man may have to answer, possibly with
his own life, for the nuschief he has dune to another
Take warning, both of you, of the consequences of this
offence, and remember that, though on this occasion
you intended no violence, yet fatal consequences ensued.
You were not, however, yourselves guilty of violence,
you did not attack the keepers ; you have not been
convicted before, and to the whole, therefore, your
sentence may be light, and it is that you be kept in
prison with hard labour for four calendar mouths.
You (addressing the four men convicted on the first
day of the Aesizeo) were convicted after a careful trial
of this offence of night poaching, and it is clear to me
that, although, in consequence of the keepers retreat.
log before you, you did not inflict violence upon them,
you were quite prepared to do so if they had attempted
to apprehend you. You were strangers in that part
of the county to which you went at night armed for
the destruction of game, and you are evidently men
who follow that pursuit, coming from a distance for
the purpose; coming in a large body armed and pre-
pared to ,ffer violence to the keepers if discovered and
disturbed. All this must be put a stop to: the offence
is bc .ming too frequent ; and it leads to lamentable
consequences, as we have teen at these Assizes. The
offence must be punished with severity, and your sen-
tence is that each of you be imprisoned and kept to
hard labour for twelve calendar months.