The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-16 00:00:00

COURT OP PROBATE \ NRCOURT POR DIVORCE AND

MATRIMONIAL CAUtik'A

Sittings in and ilie;7ast4;;•TertZCOurt of Probate: For
causes without juries—Wednesday, April 18: Thursday, IS
Friday, 20 ; Saturday, D. Full court for Divorce and 31strhnonial
Causer—Thureday, April 2a Court for Divorce and Matrimo-
nial Causes :.-14 itbout Juries.—Wednesday, April 25; Friday,
r 7: Saturday, 28: Wednesday Ilay 2; Thursday, S: Friday, 4 ;
Saturday, 5, The Judge will sit In chambers at 11 to hear sum-
monses, and in court at 12 to hear motions, on Tuesday, April 17,
and on every succeeding Tandy till Tuesday, May 8, inclusive.
The papers for the motions must be left with the clerk of the
papers before 2 o'clock on the preceding Thursday.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

(Before Mr. Commissioner Kerr.)
CRAWL OF PIEJUET.

Ellen Connell, 21, ill:lookinglriirhvcoman, was indicted
for wilful and corrupt perjury.
Mr. Collins (with whom was Mr. E. P. Wood) appeared
for the prosecution, and the prisoner was undefended.
The facts were peculiar. The prosecutor, a married man,
kept a coffee shop in Seymour-street, Euston-square, and
it appeared that on the 28th March last the prisoner, who
described herself as aservant out of place, enteredthe house
and asked to be accommodated with a bed. This was
afforded her in the basement story, to which she was con-
ducted by one of the female attendants to whom the
prisoner paid a shilling. At the time the prosecutor
was from home, but on the following morning
at 9 o'clock the prisoner, on leaving the bed-room,
she had occupied, charged the prosecutor with having
entered the bedroom and committed a rape upon her. She
gave the prosecutor into custody, and on his examination
before Mr. Mansfield, the magistrate of the Marylebone
police-court, it was proved that he had never been out of
the view of his servants from six to half-past eight o'clock
that morning, and, therefore, could not have committed
the offence imputed to him by the present prisoner. On
this and other evidence, Mr. Mansfield directed the present
indictment to be preferred against the prisoner.
The prisoner, in her defence, reiterated that an assault
had been committed upon her, but, as the room was dark,
she could not identify her assailant, but believed it was
the prosecutor.
Mr. Commissioner Kerr, without summing up the evi-
dence, left the mac to the Jury, who, after some delibe-
ration, returned a verdict of Not Guilty. The verdict was
received with manifest surprise by all the other persons in
court. _ _ _

—Mr. Alderman Copeland, who was on the bench as second
commissioner, said he had during the progress of the trial
been looking over the depositions which had been returned
in this case from the pohce court. Those depositions con-
tained interlineations and mis-spelt words, and after 38
years' experience in this court he never saw any more
disgracefully returned depositions. The subject ought, in
his judgment, to be brought under the notice of the Se-
cretary of State for the Home Department, as this neglect
caused great confusion and difficulty, and tended to defeat
the ends of justice.
The court at its rising adjourned to Monday, the 7th •...f
May next.