The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-26 00:00:00

Til DD{RAD•HThL INRDZIL.

William Charlton, aged 32, engine-driver, way tried
before Mr. Justice Willis for the murder of Jane Emmet-
eon, an old woman who kept the pte ate the Dunes-bill
crossing of the Newcastle and Oarlble Railway, oe the 21st
of November. The facts of the owe may be remembered,
but may be briefly recapitulated se laid before the jury by
Kr. Pnce, and deposed to in a mass of evidame.
On the part of the prosecution it was said that the deed
was done bitterer' the time when the last engine-driver
passed with his train, which was about • quarter to ten,
sod the time when he had • second opportunity of seeing
whetter there was a light, and did not observe one,
which was somewhere about a quarter or twenty minutes
post ten—within the space of abut half an hour. Next
morning, when the Ant engine passed the crow-
ing, • little after three o'clock, the gates were
found opened and all right ; therefore somebody
must hare been to the gates and put them so
as to enable the engine to pew without stopping.
The driver of this train did not see the old woman as ha
was accustomed to do, thocich he whistled several times
very loudly. The next tram that passed was driven by
the primer. After that, about half-past five or • quarter
to six, • man named Blaylock, coming along the line to his
work as • platelayer, and ;easing by the old wenna's
cottage, found ber lying la spool of blood. On elumatinehle•
there were found to be • amber of footmarks all rend the
settee, Isedinspk7stktbe4. et • garden in which the old
had bean taken out
dwarliga=l4 and need by =on who committed the
deed. Blood was on the ke .n•, sad the doer, sad the
drawer bore marks of Its bevies base need to twee then
It wee found that the old woman had never been to bed, as

the bed was unwede and her night clothes were skill airing
before the fire. When the police came the footmarks were
exausiuell and caste taken of them. The prisoner's duty
was to go out with the second engine in the morning, and
he was accustomed to be called up about half-past three
by a man named Chambers • be usually came dews to the
engine sheds, bringing his breakfast with him, which, after
giving directions to his fireman about getting his engine
ready, he gcnendly ate in an adjoining cabin. On
the morning in question be was awoke a little
after three, and oeme dowel as usual, but he brought i
no breakfast with him. After giving directions to bin fire-
man, he abseoted himself from the sheds on the excuse of
going to get his breakfast. It was an unusual thing for him I
to come without his breakfast. Between half-past three
and four o'clock, a pointsman on the line, named Carru-
thers, beard footsteps, and in looking round he saw what
he had never seen before—the prisoner coming down the line
from the direction of the old woman's cottage, quite in
another direction to his own house, where be said he went
to get hie breakfast and his knife. The caste off the foot-
marks, as well as the shoes taken from the pri-
soner, were produced. Those prints bore many peen-
liarities--such as one of the semi-circles of nails being
lamer than the other, the distant*s between the
the fact of there being one little nail leaning Want
upon another, tee—which must have been accidentally
made by the shoemaker. Accurate measurements of the
casts and tracings were immediately made, but the prisoner
was not apprehended till a month after. He went out with
his train to Newcastle aa usual, and as they were passing the
old woman's cottage, he kept his fireman engaged in close
conversation, and then told him to put some coke in the
fire—thus preventing the fireman from looking about him.
When the news of the murder reached Newcastle, the fire-
man asked prisoner if he saw the lights es he came up
in the morning. " Yee, I did,' was the answer, " and
I saw the old woman herself standing in the porch."
About a month after the murder, he was apprehended and
his shoes taken. On being examined with the caste, a most
remarkable and accurate resemblauce between the two was
discovered ; but fifty-four sparables indented in the casts
had been taken out of these shoes. When before the ma-
gistrates, and seeing how the evidence was going, the pri-
soner made a statement attempting to cut the blame upon
his brother-in-law, Thomas Robinson. In the first place, he
gave three different accounts about the nails--one to the
fireman, one in this statement, and soother to the police-
man ; sod also proved it was beyond doubt that
Robinson was miles away from Carlisle, had
slept that night with another man ; and, in
fact, could cover the whole of the time in
which the murder could possibly have been committed.
The prisoner's house was searched, and nutter one of the
slates on the roof of the privy was found a paper contain-
ing 52 *parable., which were of the same cha-
racter as those which bad been in the shoes ; and another
sparable was found in the prisoner's pocket. The paper in
which the 52 were wrapped had some tobacco dust in it,
and some similar dust was found in the prisoner's pocket.
Some of the nails appeared to have been taken out by pincers
and some by a chisel ; and in the prisoner's house a chisel
and a pair of pincers were found belonging to the company,
which be had no right to have there.
Mr. Campbell Forster, having addressed the jury for the
prisoner, the learned judge reserved his summing-up till
next day.
CARLISLE,' TileaDalr EVINING.
His lordship oommenced hie summing up at 9 o'clock
this morning. He left it to the jury that if the circum-
stances were all consistent with the prisoner's guilt, and
there were some of the circumstances which were

sistent with any other rational 0011CitIBIOU, it wu their
duty to find the prisoner guilty ; but d the circumstances
were all capable of another ,00nclusion, they ought,
to acquit His lordship then went carefully through
the whole evidence, pointing out the falsehood of the
prisoner in endeavouring to fix the guilt of the murder on
his brother-in-law, the circumstances attending the finding
of the " sparrowbills,” and the tracing of the shoe impres-
sions corresponding with the prisoner's shoes, and told them
that these Must not be looked at separately, bat altogether,
and their judgment must be formed on the whole facts.
The jury retired about 11 o'clock, and, after being &besot
five hours, returned at 4 o'clock with a verdict of Guilty
of murder, coupled with a recommendation to merry ea
account of the priminer'e previous character.
His lordship then, putting on the black cap, paced on
the prisoner the awful sentence of death in a most impose-
sive manner, holding out to him no hope of mercy, though
he should transmit to the proper quarter the reoommend,a-
Lion of the jury.