The Express.
London, England, 1866-08-06 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORFOLK CIRCUIT. —lpswren, Atrutrn 4.
CzowN Cover.—(Before Chief Justice Ma)
INL•ANTICIDE AND SENTENCE 01 DUI'S.

Hannah Calthorpe, 27, described as a servant, was
charged with the wilful murder of her illegitimate child,
aged three years, at Sproughton, on the sth October, 1865.
The prisoner would in the ordinary course of things
have been tried at the last assizes for the county of Suf-
folk, held at Bury St. Edmunds in the spring. trialwu, however,postponed in consequenceof M. Payne, one
of the witnesses, having broken her leg on the first day of
the assizes.

....
The prisoner, when called upon to plead, answered
" Not guilty," in a clear and firm roles, and wee then
accommodated with a seat, on which she remained during
the trial.

Mr. Bulwer, Q.C., and Mr. Longo appeared for the pro-
secution ; Mr. Reeve defended the prisoner.
The prisoner is a single woman, and on the 28th Novem-
ber, 1863, she was delivered of • child at the house of •
Mrs. Jordan, who lives in this town, She remained there
till May, 1864, and was then placed with a Mrs. Payne, to
whom the prisoner was to pay 3s. 6d. a week for taking
care of it. She herself went into service, and appears to
have become intimate with • fellow servant, by whom she
was pregnant at the time of the murder. She was dia.
missed from her place, and went to lodge with a Mrs.
Hannibell, in Ipswich, and paid 6s. • week for her board
and lodging. She then had no means of supporting her-
self except by needlework. She remained with Mrs. Han-
nibell till September, when, as her confinement was ap-
proaching, she removed to another house, where she had
only to pay la a week for her lodging. The prisoner had
paid her lodgings pretty regularly till about ten weeks
before she left Mrs. Payne, and shortly after that she
called on Mrs. Payne, and said that she wan going
into the union, and should call for the child. She then
stated to Mre. Payne that she was lodging at Whitton,
which was not the case. On the sth October Mrs. Payne
and a Mrs. Goodchild took the child and went to meet the
prisoner. They noticed that it was ten minutes to six as
they passed through the town, and they met the prisoner
entering the town from the direction of Whitton. They
all went on to the Inkerman public-house, and Mrs. Payne
said, " We will carry the child for you as far as we go, as
you will have enough of it before you get to Whitton." To
that the prisoner replied that she bad a friend coming to
meet her. They then went into the Inkerman, and the pri-
soner said she was going into the union in the course of the
week, and Mrs. Goodchild directed an envelope to
M. Payne, and gave it to the prisoner that she might
write from the union and say how she was getting on.
They were in the Inkerman for about half an hour, and
then the child was given up to the prisoner, and she
started with it in the direction of Whitton. The prisoner
having left the Inkerman Mrs. Payne saw no more of her,
but at about eight o'clock she returned to her lodgings in
Ipswich without the child. It appeared that she bad left
these lodgings between five and au o'clock stating that she
WA going for a walk, and the woman with whom she was
lodging was not aware that she had a child, and
she had never said anything to her about it. About
six o'clock the next morning the child was found dead in a
ditch about a mile from the Inkerman, and between the
roads to Whitton and Bramford. There was a footpath
near the spot and a plank over the ditch, which
was about three yards broad, and the distance from
the Inkerman to the spot where the child was found,
and on to the prisoner's lodgings in Ipswich, was about
two miles. The medical man gave it as his decided
opinion that the child had died from drowning, and stated
that there ware no marks of violence except
• few scratches on the face apparently caused
by brambles. The child when found was dressed, but
had no cap on, and the cap, which was identified by Mrs.
Payne, was found thrown over • wall near where the pri-
soner was lodging. On Sunday night, the Ath,
lice-
sergeant Norman went to the prisoner's lodging, and asked
her if her name was Calthorpe ; she said it was not, but it
should be stated that at this time she went by the name
of Mrs. John. He then took her to the police-station, and
after she had been there a short time she said, " My name
is Calthorpe ; what will they do to me!" Norman then
told her the charge. Some time after that she said " I
did put the child in the water. I paid for it as
long as I could. It was against my wishes, and
I have not bad a happy moment since."
She made a similar confession to Mrs. Onodchild, who was
with her at the station. It was stated by the medical
man that the prisoner was near her confinement, and
that occasionally the bean was a good deal affected at
such • time, and the police-sergeant stated that she
appeared in great mental and bodily pain while she was
as the police station. On the 21st of October she was
confined in the gaol.
The witness, Mrs. Payne, who proved these facts, was
brought into court on a stretcher, which was placed on the
table, she not having recovered the use of her leg, which
was broken as above mentioned at the time of the last
assizes. She seemed deeply affected, and when the child's
cap was shown to her, which she stated that she bad
made, she burst into tears, and wasunable to proceed
with her evidence for some minutes.

Mr. Reeve, in addressing the jury for the prisoner, com-
mented on the fact that there were no marks of violenoe
which one would have expected, and stated that his theory
was that the prisoner not being able to maintain the child,
and expecting another, had left it by the footpath, hoping
that some one would find it and take care of it, and that
the child had then fallen into the ditch, and be con-
tended that that was a reasonable explanation of the state-
ments the prisoner had made.
His lordship, in summing up, observed that this was a
charge of murder of a most aggravated nature, and the
jury should not nod the prisoner guilty unless the case
was clearly made out. One thing that he (the learned
judge) wished to dispel from the minds of the jury was
what had been urged by the counsel for the prisoner,
that their verdict of guilty would consign the prisoner
to an untimely grave. Al far as his expenence went that
would not be the cue, but if it was thought that an ex-
ample should be made, the law certainly might be allowed
Ito take its course, but that ought not to enter into the con-
sideration of the jury. His lordship then observed that if
the prisoner placed the child by the brook, as suggested by
her counsel, with the intention that it should fall into the
brook and it did so, that was murder, just as much as if
she had put it in. He then went through the facts of the
case as above detailed.

The jury retired to consider their verdict at 3 o'clock,
and in a quarter of an hour returned into court, and amid
breathless silence delivered a verdict of Guilty, with a
strong recommendation to mercy.
The prieoner, who seemed much affected, said nothing in
answer to the question by the clerk of assize as to whether
she had anything to say why sentence of death should not
I be pawed upon her.
On his lordship assuming the black cap the prisoner
became quite hysterical, and bad to be supported by the
governor of the gaol.
Ilia lordship, who was visibly affected, said—Prisoner at
the bar,. you have been convicted by the jury of this atro-
cious crime, and I entirely concur in their verdict. I do
not mean to add to your misery. His lordship then pro-
ceeded to pass 'entailer of death in the usual form, adding,
amid the shrieks of the prisoner, that he would forward
the recommendatioa of the jury to the proper quarter.
It was some time before the prisoner could be removed
from the court, during which it was most painful to hear
her groans and cries. She was eventually carried from
the court apparently in a state of unconsciousness.

NORTHERNCIRCIIIT.—Ieantazarsa, Ara. 4.

CEOWN COVET.-- (Before Xs. J'astios Lash.)
Tax cAr-o'-wnrsdrAna.

The criminal business of these assizes concluded about
half-put three o'clock in the afternoon, when the
judge ordered the prisoners to be placed in the dock found
guilty of the more serious class of offences, whose sen-
tences had been reserved for consideration.
His liwdship prefaced his sentence of the prisoners
charged with robbery accompanied with violence, and of
, by observing that it was en extraordinary thing
garotters,
attersgrast city like Mwachester, well lighted and well
watched, that persons could not walk the streets in the
night as well as in the day time, without danger. He
found from the oases that had come before him that even
during the nights far advanced in summer robberies had
been committed accompanied by most atrocious acts of
violence, and he should at these saes' es, as he had done
at the last, avail himself of the new powers given him by
the statute of inflicting punishment by the bah, in addi-
tion to the ordinary terms of imprisonment and penal servi-
tude. The object of punishment was not so much to
inflict pain upon the criminal as to deter others from com-
mitting offences of a like character ; and until it was seen
that punishment such as he was about to award had pro-
duced an effect in Manchester, it would be the duty of
her Majesty's judges to pursue the course he was now
adopting.

ilickiet Carroll and Aaron Attack (who had just been
convicted of a street robbery) wars sentenced to Ave years'
penal servitude each, and two dome lashes each with the
eat-o'-nine-tails.

Mark Fagan, convicted of having, with two others oat
in custody, oommitted a garotte robbery. leaving the vic-
tim insensible—live years penal servitude and eighteen
Lichee.

Michael Joh* Flaherty, who had pleaded gailty on two
indictment, of having onaniitted twe garotte • en
snoteative days, l2th and I.3sh February—seven years'
penal sesviende and eighteen Whim.
Peter Idly and Willis* Wei/At, robbery with violas°,
—live yeses' parl writs& and eighteen When.