The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-16 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

OLD COURT.—Before Mr. Baron Rolfe and Mr. Justice Wlghtman.
MURDER BY • Bor.— W. N. Ailnua, 12, was arraigned
upon an indictment charging him with the wilful murder of
Samuel Nelme, in having unlawfully mixed a quantity of
arsenic with sugar.—The prisoner was also charged with the
like offence upon the coroner's inquisition.—He pleaded
not guilty to both the charges,—During the trial he was
seated in the dock, with his face buried in his hands.
Maria Bucker said, on the Sunday before Mr. Mime
died, the prisoner came to me in the kitchen, and asked if I
did not think his grandfather would die suddenly ? I asked
him why he put such a question ; and he replied, that be
thought his grandfather would die suddenly, as hie eyes
looked queer.
Mr. F. Toulmir., surgeon, said, I knew the deceased'
Samuel Nelme, and saw him between seven and eight
o'clock in the morning on which he died. He was then
very sick, and complained of great pain in the bowels, and
was violently purged. I thought him extremely ill. I saw
him a second time about twelve o'clock, and went again to
his house at five, when I found he was dead. I afterwards,
by order of the coroner, opened the body, but at that time
I did not observe anything auspicious in the appearance of
the stomach, but the contents were removed, in order that
they might undergo a more careful examination. Mrs.
Nelme, the wife of the deceased, sent for me on the Id of
November, and, at my request, the gave me some arrow-
root and some pounded sager. I attempted to dissolve a
portion of the latter in water, and gave the remainder to
Dr. Letheby, at the London Hospital, and he made some
experiments upon it in my presence, and the result was,
that it was proved to contain a quantity of arsenic. I have
no doubt, from this circumstance, and from what I have
since heard, that the deceased died from the effects of some
arsenical poison.—By Mr. Ballantine, for the prisoner, Un-
til I heard of the existence of the poison in the sugar, and
ix the, stomach of the deceased, I fancied the death had
Arian hom cholera, or some other natural cause.
Mr. Letheby, physician, deposed that he received three
jars, containing the contents of the deceased's stomach, the
intestines, and a portion of the liver, and also a quantity.of
pounded sugar and arrow-root, from the last witness. He
analysed the whole of these matters. The witness then
gave a technical detail of the course ke pursued in the dif-
(trent analyses, and the result arrived at was the detection
lof a considerable quantity of arsenic in the stomach. He
likewise tested the pounded sugar, and out of a quantity of
about four ounces and a half, he was enabled to detect the
presence of half an ounce of white arsenic. He subs..
quently examined a portion of the brain of the deceased,
which was given to him by Dr. Toulmin, and he detected
in that also a trace of the presence of arsenic.—ln answer to
a question put by Mr. Baron Rolfe, the witness said that he
did not weigh it, bet he was of opinion that four pains of
arsenic altogether were detected in the body of the deceased,
and this quantity, he said, was sufficient to muse death.—
By Mr. Ballantine : The arsenic I observed in the brain
and the liver, had no doubt been taken into the system at a
more remote period than that which was in the intestines.
I do not speak positively to this fact, but it is my opinion,
resulting from my experience in a great number of cases of
poisoning; and, according to my belief, the arsenic had
been in the brain and the liver for a south. That would
not be my opinion if I was aware that the patient had been
in perfect health up to a very recent period before his death.
Arsenic is administered medicinally, but in that ease it would
not accumulate to such an extent m the liver as appeared in
this ease.

Mrs. Sarah Nelme, the widow of the demand, who was
much affected while giving her testimony, deposed that her
husband was in his 74t1 year at the time of his death. Of
late years he had eojoyedvery good health, and did not com-
plain of any illness until two or three days before his death.
He died on the 27th October, and be first complained of
illness on the previous Friday ; but at that time they
Naught he was only suffering from a cold. He first com-
plained of sickness on the Tuesday before his death. A
basin containing pounded sugar was used in the family, and
it was generally placed on the table after dinner with fruit,
and the deceased always used the sugar from this basin, and
the prisoner was aware of that feet and had awns to the
sugar. Witness herself never used this sugar, which was
almost exclusively kept for the use of the deceased. She put
a small portion of the sugar lute some arrowroot which she
took on the Monday, and was very ill afterwards.
Mrs. Mary Louisa Allnutt, the mother of the prisoner,
who was likewise deeply affected, said that the prisoner was
12 years old last October. She resided with her father, and
knew that he was in the habit of having arsenic in the house,
and the prisoner was also acquainted with the feet. The
arsenic was used to poison rate, and the prisoner had seen it
so used. One day ho asked her what arsenic wee like, and
she told him it was like flour. This was about a week before
her father died. The arsenic was always kept in a bureau
in the beck parlour, which was kept locked. She believed
that the sugar-basin was tilled with sager ou the Friday
morning before her father died, and she herself partook of
some of it on the evening of that day. Her father used some
at the same time, and he also put some on a baked apple on
the Sunday ; he generally used a good deal of sugar with his
fruit. Witness made him some gruel on the Sunday night,
and sweetened it with the same sugar. She also partook of
the gruel, and immediately afterwards was taken dreadfully
sick, and continued in that state, and paralysed, for three
days, and was very ill for a fortnight afterwards.—By Mr.
Ballantine : My own husband was subject to apoplectic fits
and died in estate of complete madness. When the prisoner
was about a year end • half old he fell upon *ploughshare, and
at first it was thought he was dead. He had given her a great
deal of trouble by his misconduct. In January last he bed a
fall since then hie conduct had been much worsethan before.
He was orought home after the fall, and was very pale, and
his eyes looked vacant and bewildered, and she was quits
struck with hi. appearance. He used frequently to corn.
plain of inane, and from his appearance there was no doubt
that he suffered a great deal. Whea she complained of his
conduct, on some occasions he would tell her, that some one
seemed to say to him in his head, " Do it, de it, you will
never be found out." He said this after his father's death,
and when she complained of his having taken a watch. Pri-
soner was in every respect quite indifferent to her other child.
He used to walk in his sleep, and she frequently heard him
call out in his situp as though something bad frightened him,
Dr. Letheby was recalled, and in answer to a question
from the t ourt, he said that walking in the sleep was an in-
dication of a disordered state of the brain. It might be
occasioned by some organic nun, or from stew disordered
state of the stomach, end the same observances, he said,
would apply to talking in sleep. A. violent blow upset the
head might also have the effector Waalto &garden. the brain.
Mary Ann Party, a charwoman sat 'he tliceleccesed's
house, said that on the Saturday begun r. Name died, the
prisoner told her he thought has gmadfather maid go of
suddenly, and the reason ke thought so was, that his her I
had died suddenly.—Ant nspector of polio* was called to
show that the prisoner was Irina into his enstody.—By Mr.