The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-07-16 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF ABDUCTION

On Saturday last, at the Worship-street Police-court,
Mr. John Weakley, an extensive brush manufacturer in
High street, Whitechapel, attended before Mr. D'Eyn--
court, the presiding magistrate, to request his advice
and assistance under the following remarkable circum-
stances.

The applicant stated that be was anxious to commu-
nicate to the magistrate the particulars of an outrage of
a very mysterious •and aggravated character, to which
one of his apprentices, who now accompanied him, had
been subjected. He should leave the lad to make his
own statement of the facts, after premising that he had
been nearly five years in his service,. and had always
conducted himself in the most exemplary manner, hav-
ing never absented himself from home for a single hour,
nor been detected in an untruth during the whole of that
period.
The apprentice, a frank, intelligent-looking youth,
about 16 years of age, was then called into the witness-
box, and entered into the following extraordinary
narrative :—On Wednesday last I was passing through
Whitechapel, on an errand for my master, at four o'clock
in the afternoon, when a gentleman with a bushy beard
and mustachios drove up to the door of one of the shops
and asked me to mind his horse and chaise while he went
in to make a purchase. I agreed to do so, and on coming
back in a few minutes, the gentleman said that he had
no silver about him, and that I had better step into the
chaise, as he had to call at the corner of Ald.gate, where
he would get change and give me a shilling for my
trouble. I made no objection, as I had to pass that way,
and got into the chaise with him ; but we had only gone
a little way, when he told me he was a dealer in perfu-
mery, and asked me if I liked scents, at the same time
pulling out a small bottle, which he held to my nose,
and I instantly lost my senses. I must have continued
several hours in that state, for it was quite dark when I
came to, and found myself in the hands of two men who
' were dragging me out of the chaise in a solitary road in
the country. On calling out for help, one of the men
threatened to kill me if I made the least noise, and
grasped 'me by the throat, but I bit him in the hand and
kicked awl struggled till I got free from him, and started
off as fast as I could run. I heard the men running after
me for some distance, but managed to keep ahead of
them
.till I got to a dry ditch, in which I. concealed
myself, and remained there till daylight. I then crept
back into the road, finding that the men were gor.e, but
-felt so faint and exhausted that I got into a field where
I slept for several hours. On waking up I was told by
some men who were working in the field that it was
More than six miles on the other side of Highgate ; but
they directed me the way home, on reaching which I
informed my master of everything that had taken place.
In answer to a question from the magistrate, it was
intimated by the master that the lad was evidently in
state of extreme prostration and excitement on his return
home about four o'clock on Thursday afternoon, when
he minutely described the particulars of the violence
which had been practised towards him in strict accord-
ance with his present statement.
Mr. D'Eyncourt—lt is certainly a most extraordinary
story, and I am at a loss to conceive any adequate motive
for the perpetration of such an outrage.
The master—l can only say from my intimate know-
ledge of his character, that I believe the boy to be
utterly incapable of deception, and your worship may
Probably remember a similar case which occurred a •few
Years ago, when a lad was kidnapped for a suppos-d
infamous purpose, under precisely similar circumstances,
and was afterwards found murdered in a ditch in the
neighbourhood of Acton.

Mr. D'Ey►,court said that he perfectly recollected the
incident referred to, and he believed that the persons
who had been guilty of the atrocity had never been
brought to justice. He should advise Mr. Weakley im-
mediately to place the matter in the hands of the police,
who would adopt the necessary means for the disco%mry
and apprehension of the parties who had committed the
alleged outrage.

DAY.

CASTLETOWN (ISLE OF MAN) STEAM

NAVIGATION COMPANY,