The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-21 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING. JUNE 21, 1853.

THE POLICE COURTS.

BOW-STREET.

Swan Wre?land, • respectably dressed young woman,
was charged with forgery.
Mr. J. C. Cox, cashier at the bank of Messrs. Drummond
and Co., Charing emu, stated that the prisoner called at
the bank on the 16th inst. and presented a cheque for 201.,
drawn by the Marquis of Downshire. Witness saw that
the amount had been altered from 101. to 201., end that the
alteration was not in the handwriting of his lordship, al-
though the signature was genuine. He consequently re-
fined to cash the cheque, and returned it to her, stating
that the amount had been altered. She said " Yes, it was
altered by Lord Downshire himself." On Saturday
she presented the same cheque again, and on
that occasion witness detained it, in consequence
of an intimation received daring the interim from the mar-
quis, who was at present residing at his country seat at
Easthampstead, but was expected in town in • few days.
Yesterday (Monday) she returned for it, and was given into
custody.
Richard Ferguson, the secretary of the Mendicity So-
ciety, who had been in correspondence with the noble
marquis, said he believed that the prisoner had represented
herself as the niece of one of his lordship's friends, but hehad
not yet had time to make inquiries respecting her, although
be believed sho was known to Horsford, the mendicity con-
stable. She told witness that she lived in Ann-street,
Waterloo-road, and that she received the cheque from Lord
Downshire at Eastliampatead.
The prisoner, in answer to the charge, persisted in stating
that the alteration was made by his lordship.
Mr. Hall remanded her for further examination.
Henry Gwynn, who has been for upwards of 20 years in
the service of Mr. Whiting, the printer, of Beaufort House,
Strand, was charged with a series of embezzlemenb.
It was proved that the prisoner, who filled the situation
of an overseer, had been in the habit of charging the firm
with a larger amouat oa account of wages than he had ac-
tually paid to the men. S lof the compositors in Mr.
Whiting's office were examined to prove this fact, and in
one case it transnired that a sum had been charged for a
compositor who, being absent from work, was entitled to
nothing at all. It was stated that a discrepancy to the
extent of 281. had been already discovered in the prisoner's
accounts since Christmas, and the prosecutor was wholly
unable to conjecture the extent to which he may have been
defrauded by the same practice.
Mr. 1141 committed the prisoner for trial, consenting to
take hail if he could find two sureties of 601. each, besides
his own recagnisances in 1001.
WORSHIP-STREET,

Samuel Buckles, an athletic man, was charged with hav-
ing assaulted and seriously itajured a young woman named
Sarah Duncan.

Complainant, whose face was a complete mess of bruises,
said that she had been living for some years with the pri-
soner, who had been in the habit of subjecting her to the
most cruel illtreatment during the greater part of that
period. On the previous evening the prisoner, who had
absented himself nearly the whole of the day, returned
I home in a state of intoxication and pulled some money out
of his pocket, a portion of which slipped out of his hands,
but he immediately picked it up, and on counting it over
declared, with an oath, that there was half-a-crown defici-
ent, and insisted that she had stolen it. She denied having
done so, but the prisoner repeated the accusation with in-
creased vehemence, exclaiming that he would have her life,
commenced beating her unmercifully about the head and fare
and inflicted the cuts and bruises which she now exhibited.
Witness endeavoured to escape from further ill-usage, and
while chasing her round the room, the prisoner accident-
ally discovered his missing half crown, on the carpet where
he had dropped it ; but instead of expressing the slightest
compunction for his brutality and injustice, he coolly
picked it up, and after replacing it in his pocket, renewed
the attack upon her, and struck her a terrible blow in the
face, which felled her to the floor. Tho prisoner then com-
menced kicking her in *savage manner about the head and
body, until her cries for assistance attracted the notice of a
policeman who forced open the door and took him into
custody.
Police Constable Hitcheox, O 28, stated that on entering
the room, the floor of which was stained with blood in
several places, he found the complainant crouching down
in the corner of the apartment, bleeding profusel7lfrom the
face, while the prisoner was leaning over her, to the act
of beating and kicking her, with savage ferocity. He suc-
ceeded with some difficulty in dragging him away by main
force, but the prisoner made the must strenuous efforts to
release himself, and attack her again, and declared that he
was determined to do fur her if he were to be hung for it at
Newgato.
Hayward, the warrant officer, informed the magistrate
that the prisoner had been several times in custody for ill-
treating the complainant, but from feelings of mistaken
lenity, she had always hitherto declined to press the charge
against him.
On being asked if he wished to say anything, the pri-
soner sullenly replied, that he was greatly provoked at the
time, as he was under the impression that the woman had
stolen his money.
Mr. D'Eyncourt said that it was a most brutal and
cowardly outrage, and he should order the prisoner to pay a
penalty of 51., or be committed in default for two months to
the House of Correction, in addition to which he should re-
quire him to find two sureties to be answerable for his good
behaviour for the further term of six months.

CLERHEN WELL.
John James, a rough looking fellow, was charged with
having committed a 'cadent assault upon Mary his wife.
An Inspector of the O Division said that the prisoner's
wife was not in attendance to prosecute the prisoner,
although she was most seriously injured and taken to the
hospital.
Mr. Corrie asked whether there w.e anybody present
who could give evidence as to the assault.
The policeman who took the charge said he saw the pri-
soner beat his wife in a most brutal manner, and she was
bleeding profusely from wounds in her head and face, and
he took him into custody.
Mr. Corrie—Have you seen the prosecutrix this morning ?
Constable—l have not ; the prisoner was bailed out, and
I have no doubt he has made it up with his wife, and she
has declined appearing against him.
The prisoner said in his defence that his wife gave him
great provocation. He was very sorry.
Mr. Corrie said it behoved such persons as the prisoner to
be very cautious how they behaved towards their wives,
in future, as a law had just come into operation which
gave the magistrates great powers in such cases, and the
heaviest penalties could be inflicted. He would now dis-
charge him, and it was fortunate perhaps that his wife did
not appear to prosecute.
MARYLEBONE.
Hannah Pomfret, a respectably dressed woman, was
charged with having fraudulently obtained possession of
property to a very large amount.
The floor of the court between the bar aid the attorneys'
table and around the witness-box was nearly blocked up by
large bundles containing articles of linen, &e., which had
been brought up in a cub by Lodge, d 9 Cl, and Brian,
299 D.

A great deal of evidence was gone into, from which it
appeared that on the previous Monday afternoon the pri-
soner went to the house of Mr. Newland, 86, Oxford-
terrace, as also to Mrs. Roreford's, 28, Connaught-square ;
at each of the said dwellings parcels of linen, dth. were
delivered to her upon her representing that she had been
sent for the same by the laundress ; in neither case did she
make use of any name; the parties regularly employed to
do the washing subsequently applied as usual for the
parcels, and in consequence of their having been given to
one who had no right to the possession of them, information
was immediately communicated to the police. The matter
was placed in the hands of Lodge and Brian, who, on Satur-
day night last, at 12 o'clock, repaired to the prisoner's lodg-
ings, 2, Red Lion-yard, Great Warner-street, Clerkenwell.
The prisoner, who occupied two rooms, said that she had
been employed by a woman named Murphy, who, about
three months ago, after giving her too much drink, told her
there was no harm in going to houses and asking for wash-
ing. Upon this intimation she had carried on the "game"
ever since. When questioned as to her name she said it
was not Pomfret, bat Daly. Much of the property was
secreted under the bed, and a largo quantity also strewn
about the floor. At least 431. worth of the articles produced
by the officers—they formed hut a small portion of what
was stolen from Mr. New land's and Mrs. liorsford's—were
identified as having been fraudulently obtained from the
residences of the parties who had now come up to prosecute.
Inspector Jackson said that complaints were continually
being made at the various police stations of similar acts of
plunder. The owners of six bundles of linen, &c. had not
yet been met with.
The prisoner was remanded.