The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-10-21 00:00:00

INFAMOUS CHARGE

Mr. Geo. Cook, a most respectable and religious man,
about fifty years of age, whose wife and family were in
court, wai brought before Mr. Selfe, on Saturday, at the
Thames Police-office, charged with stealing a silver watch,
a gold chain, and four geld rings, the property of Elizabeth
Reid. The prosecutrix i 3 a woman of the town, and,
according to her statement, she met a gentleman she
believed to be the prisoner, and who said his first name was
George. at the Mahogany Bar Concert and Assembly Rooms,
in Wellclose-square, on Wednesday night, the 811 instant.
They had some Fri re-, and the gentleman went home with
her, and remaine It her till the following afternoon
when.he suddenly depe'ted, while she was absent from her
rocam, and when she returned she missed a silver watch, a
gold chain, andl)ar -gold rings, from a drawer in her room.
She would not swear positively to the prisoner. It was a
gentleman like him who went home with her, and he had a
scar over, his left eye. Roche, the gaoler : There is no
scar over the prisoner's left eye. Witness : Perhaps it's
the other eye. Roche : Nor over the other eye. Witness :
I met him last night, and so believe I can vouch he is the
person. He was a bald headed, florid complexioned man.
I judge by the scar over his eye. Mr. Selfe: You have
proved his innocence--he has no scar, woman. Ann Clare,
who lived in the same house as the prosecutrix, looked at
the prisoner, and said the man who came home with the
last witness was very much like the prisoner, but she would
not positively swear to him. Mr. Cook, in defence, said he
held a responsible situation in the London Dock, and had
done so for sixteen years. He slept with his wife and not
with the prostitute who had made this false charge against
him. On Thursday, the 9th inst., he was tallying wines all
day in the London Dock. Mr. Selfe asked the prosecutrix
what time the man left her on Thursday, the 9th inst. ? To
which she replied that he remained with her all day until
four in the afternoon. Mr. Andrew Scott, clerk in the
London Dock, said—l produce this sheet of accounts made
out by the prisoner on the 9th inst. He was tallying wines
all day from eight to four o'clock, the business hours. The
prisoner was not away from the dock during these hours.
Mr. Selfe was satisfied the prosecutrix had made a most
false and infamous charge against the prisoner, and she
ought to be ashamed of herself, if any shame could be found
in a common prostitute. The charge not only affected the
prisoner's character as an honest man, but his character for
morality. He did not believe there was any wiful mistake
on the part of the prosecutrix, but when she doubted the
prisoner's identity last night she ought to have withdrawn
the charge. The prisoner would be discharged, and without
the least stain on his character as far as this accusation was
concerned. Mr. Cook : I have been locked up all night on
this false charge. Am I to have no compensation ? Mr.
Selfe : I can award none. You can bring an action against
that abandoned woman for false imprisonment, but I am
afraid you;will obtain nothing from her. I am very sorry you
have been put to so much inconvenience and that you
have been incarcerated all night.

EXTENSIVE CLOTH ROBBERY•

CONFLICT WITH THE ROBBERS

On Thursday last, five powerful ruffians, named James
Atkinson, George Brook, John Hardcastle, Samuel Patchett,
and Abraham Anpleyard, were tried before H. W. Wickham,
Esq., M.P., at the 'West Riding Sessions, at Leeds, upon the
charges of breaking into the warehouse of Mr. Wm. Walker,
at Longwood, near Huddersfield, and stealing ten ends of
cloth, worth £lOO. The case has excited very considerable
interest in the West Riding, from the fact of the prisoners
formed part of a gang of robbers who have from time to time
committed extensive and daring depredations at Leeds,
Bradford. Huddersfield, and other places, from some of which
towns woollen goods have been stolen in one night almost
sufficient to load a waggon. From the evidence adduced on
the prisoners' trial, it appeared that the prosecutor, Mr.
Walker, is a merchant and manufacturer of woollen cloth at
Longwood, near Huddersfield. During the night of the Ist
of August his warehouse was broken open, and ten ends of
black woollen cloth carried off. Information was at once given
to the police, and Mr. Heaton, superintendent of the Hudders-
field police, took the requisite steps to detect the thieves.
Nothing was heard of the matter for some time ; but at length
it occurred to Mr. Heaton tint it would be well to examine
various places in the neighbourhood. Among other
places searched was a building at Quarmby, formerly
used as a school, but at present the meeting place of one
or two denominations of Dissenters. In the ceiling of
this building is -a trap-door or man hole, giving admission to a
space between the ceiling and the roof. An officer went
through the tray-door into the false roof, and there found eight
ends of black cloth, which by the tickets, numbers, and olher
marks, were identified as eight of the ten ends stolen. Feeling
satisfied that those who " planted" the stolen property would
come and fetch it away, the superintendent and several other
officers concealed themselves in an adjacent mistal and watched
night by night from the 25th of August to the Ist of Sept.;
and then the officers removed from the mistal to a garden
nearer the school, where they continued their watch night by
night till half-past 11 o'clock on the 3rd of Sept. At that
hour, the prisoners Brook and Atkinson came along the road,
entered the baron, and subsequently walked towards quarmby-
fold. They were followed by five or six other men, and all
went to the school where the cloth was concealed. One of.
these men, the prisoner Patchett, was carrying a new plank.
These rn,,n unlocked the door of the school with a skeleton
key, and entered, while' Appleyard kept watch at the side of
the garden where the. officers were concealed, and only separa-
ted from them by a low wall and iron pallisading. The man
who had entered the school reared the plank so as to give
access to the man-hole ; but at this moment Appleyard saw or
heard something in the garden, and running towards the school,
shouted " All away, all away l" The men rushed out, and
the officers were upon them immediately. A severe struggle
ensued, the result being the capture of Brook and Atkinson and
the escape of the others. During the struggle, Brook cut open the
face of a constable with a dark lantern he carried, and afterwards
attempted to brain him with a heavy life preserver. He was,
however, secured. Later the same night, Hardcastle was
apprehended at Wyke, near Bradford, at which time his shoes
and-trousers were quite wet, and the shoes were also warm.
Next morning Patchett and the other prisoners were appre-
hended at their homes, where some housebreaking implements
and a new waistcoat and trousers made of black cloth of the
same kind as that stolen were found. E. Shaw, himself a
convict, related a conversation which he had with Hardcastle
on the morning after the robbery, when Hardcastle described
its circumstances, and stated that the ploth had hem planted
where it would remain for three weeks or a month, The
whole of the prisoners were convicted, and in passing sentence,
Mr. Wickham said the comt could not forget that the
prisoners were a set of men banded together to commit any
deeds of violence, and the murderous designs of at least one of
them bad been proved beyond all doubt, Having broken into
the warehouse and concealed the plunder, they waited for five
or six weeks in the hope that the vigilance of the police had
slumbered, and the hue and cry had blown over. But they
had found themselves miserably disappointed, for the police
bad used and continued exertions which must commend them
to everybody who had heard the case. The activity, vigilance,
zeal, and . patience of Superintendent Heatqn and the police
were creditable to them to the highest degree. Looking at
the desperate character of the prisoners, the court could not
think of allowing them a chance of committing crime again
for a long time to come. The sentence of the court
upon them was, that they should each be placed in
penal servitude for the period of eight years. A gratuity of
£lO was awarded to Superintendent Heaton for his excellent
conduct throughout the transaction,

THE TYNE SHIPOWNERS AND THE INCOME TAX.—A con-
siderable amount of discussion has arisen among the Shields
shipowners during the past week, with regard to the method
adopted by the Income-tax Commissioners, who have
been sitting in the Town-hall of that town, to increase the
assessable value of their ships's earnings. In all the north-
east ports, the shipping property is insured in mutual
insurance office or clubs , the rate of insurance paid by the
vessels so insured depending upon the amout of losses sus-
tained by the offices in which they are insured. The calls
made by the insurance offices are known as " averages,"
and, of course,
vessel, but in some years the losses are so severe, and the
are paid out of the freight earned by the
earnings of the vessel 'so small, that the balances of them
have to be advanced out of capital, which, however,
may be considered a very exceptional occurrence. Those
" averages" have always been considered by the ship-
owners as proper deductions to be made from the
earnings of' their vessels, and, as far as we can learn,
have been allowed by the commissioners as such, bat this
year they have refused to do so, and have charged all the
" averages" to income to be taxed. As some owners of
vessels in the Tyne have £60,000 worth of property afloat,
and pay during the course of the year, in all probability, 5
per cent. insurance upon them, this. deoision of the com-
missioners will cause a considerable loss to them, and, so
far as it goes, is a discouragement to small owners in pro-
tecting themselves and creditors from the dangers of the
ocean.