The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-12-21 00:00:00

THE CHARGE OF POISONING AGAINST

_
A BOY.
Samuel Hoy, a boy only twelve years of age, has been In-
dicted at the Old Bailey, London, for feloniously administer-
ing to Emily Hoy, hi, stepmother, a large quantity of cor-
rosive fluid, namely, sulphuric acid, with intent to murder
her. To this indictment, when the prisoner was asked to
plead, he burst into tears and said "I am not guilty of this
case as I know of." He was then charged upon another in-
dictment with feloniously attempting to administer poison
to the same person. To this indictment the prisoner pleaded
not guilty. The last-mentioned indictment was the one that
was proceeded with.
Mr. Cooper prosecuted. The prisoner was undefended;
I but at the request of the court, Mr. G. S. Griffith kindly
I undertook to watch the cocoon his behalf.

The circumstances under which this charge WM pre-
ferred against the prisoner were, as will be Bern, of a
very painful character. The father and stepmother of
the prisoner kept a Buisll furniture shop at Islington,
and in one of the drawers in the shop the prisoner's
father kept a quantity of white arsenic, under the
impression, as it appeased, that it was concealed from
ordinary observation—that the fact of this arsenic
being there was not known to any one but himself.
On the morning of the 4th December the prisoner got
up before the rest of the family had prepared break-
fast, and about eight o'clock in the morning
the prisoner took tle two cups of tea to his
stepmother and father, who were in bed. The
father drank his tea, and no evil consequences
resulted. but very soon after the stepmother
(hank hers she was seized with violent pains in
the dariet and stomach and violent pnrgiug and vomit-
ing, and to this it seemed very probable she owed her
life, the daily ingre lient being ejected from her
stomach. On the following Saturday the prisoner ap-
peared to have again taken two cups of tea to the
presecutrix and his father, and the letter drank his,
again without any evil symptoms arising, but it ap-

peared that the proeceeutrix did not drink here, but left
it standing till it wascold, and she then tasted it, and,
discovering something very unpleasant in it, she threw
the tea into the Fink and observed a thick white sedi-
ment at the bottom of the cup, which excited
sups,n, and the cup was put aside and ita
coatente were afterwards analyzed by Dr. Hale,
a medical gentleman practicing in the neighbour-
hood; they were found to contain sufficient arsenic to
have destroyed the lives of several grown poisons, and
it was probably owing to the excessive quantity of
poison that had been placed in the first cup of tea
that it was rejected by the stomach, an thus the life
of the prosecutrix waseaved. Suspicion seemed to have
at once fallen upon the prisoner, and upon his father
going to the drawer where he had kept the arsenic he
found that the whole of it had disappeared. In ad-
dition to these facts it appeared that it was the cus-
tom in the family for the prisoner to take up a cup of
tea to his father and stepmother while they were in bed
on Sunday mornings but it was quite an unusual oc-
currence for him to do so on other mornings, and his
taking up the tea On the Saturday morning was quite
unexpected by the prosi entrix and his father. A sister
of the prisoner, eight years of age, name, I Emily 'toy,
stated that two or three days before the 4th of De-
cember, she heard the prisoner make use of the ex-
pression, "If I could find any poison I should takelit
but she explainerl that at the time he used the words
she understood him to mean that he intended to take
the poison himself.
A statement made by the prisoner was put in, and
it was to the effect that he positively denied having ,
put any poison into the teapot on the Wednesday
morning, but he said that when he made the tea he
aoticed sometb ing of a blubh colour floating on the top,
but he did not think it was any harm.
Mr. Griffiths made an earnest appeal to the jury on
behalf of the prisoner, art he reminded them in the
first instance of the terrible charge that was made
against him, and that only a few years ego his life
would have been forfeited if he had been couvieted of
it. lie then went on to remark upen the apparent
entire absence of any motive for committing the dread-
fist mime of murdering the person who stood in the
relation of step-mother to him; and he argued that the
poison might have got into the tea-pot by aocidecit.
Ile also expmsed his opinion that the pc isoner's father
had been guilty of great negligence in not keeping such
a deadly minei al as white arsenic under lock and key,
where it would have been in perfect safety.
•

Mr. Justice Brett, in his summing up, said that, I
notwithstanding the serious nature of the charge, they '
must do their duty to the law and to the public, and if
the evidence satisfied them that the prisoner had
committed the offence imputed to him, the only course
that was mien to them was to say no by their verdict.
If« then adverted to the facts, and said they must be
satisfied of two facts before they could find the prisoner
guilty of the offence of which he was now accused, one
of whish was that he really did attempt to administer
psd-on to his stepmother, and the other that in so doing
he intended to cause her death. If either of these facts
was left in any reasonable doubt, the prisoner was
entitled to be acquitted.
The jury retired to deliberate upon their verdict, and
they returned into court in about half an hour, and
found the prisoner Guilty, but strongly recommended
him to mercy en account of his youtb.
The learned judge said it was as bad a case as had
ever come before him, and he sentenced the prisoner
to ten years' penal servitude.