The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-28 00:00:00

ALLEGED WHOLESALE INFANTICIDE.

DrrciurNet, SUSSEX, SUNDAY. —Mr. F. H. Gell, coroner
for East Sussex, held an inquest at the Bull Inn, Ditchling,
yesterday, on five infant skeletons, which were discovered
under the following circumstahces .
A cottage, opposite the inn, has lately passed into new
hands, and, by way of fitting it for occupation, a new fire-
place was deemed necessary. On pulling down the old
one, it was found that this was not the first time that the
process had been resorted to. Originally there was a large
old-fashioned, countryfied chimney-corner; but modern
comfort, as it is called, had been introduced into the
dwelling, and the fireplace had been blocked up on each side,
leaving a chasm of about a foot between the old and the
new brickwork. In these interstices were found on Friday
last—three on the left side and two on the right—fib skeletons
of evidently new-born infants, who at the time of birth had
been immured in the place where they were discovered.
Of course, the discovery produced a great sensation in the
village, and the question "How came the bodies there ?"
led to replies which caused the apprehension of a supposed
culprit. The occupants of the cottage for more than fifteen
years were—one James Gatland, a labourer, and his daughter,
Harriet Maynard, a woman of 40, with two illegitimate
children, a young woman of 20, and a youth of 17 or 18.
The woman was, during the last year, married to a labourer,
and six weeks ago was again a mother. At the inquest
three women swore that they had observed that the woman,
when living only with her two illegitimate children and her
father, presented an appearance of pregnancy, which, after
existing for a time, was no more seen, and that the last time
this occurred was nearly three years ago.
The five infant bodies were scorched, evidently by the
action of the kitchen fire through the inner brickwork. It
was shown that • each of the corpses was wrapped in a
piece of cotton-print said to resemble cloth seen in the
possession of the prisoner. There was, however, no evi-
dence to substantiate a capital charge against the woman,
and she was therefore discharged ; but she was immediately
apprehended by the police of the East Sussex constabulary
on a magistrate's warrant, and is to be examined before
the magiotratoo at the Lcwee bench on the charge of
concealing the birth, on Wednesday morning, The exami•
nation before Mr. Gell on Saturday, occupied four hours
and upwards.

THE ACTON MURDER.

The following is a portion of the evidence given on the
inquest in the case of the boy, aged fourteen, recently found
stripped naked and dead in a ditch at Acton, after having
disappeared for seven weeks. The facts seem.not less hor-
rible than mysterious.
George Medhurst, residing at 11, Slade's-place, Allen-
street, Goswell-street, Clerkenwell, was the first witness
called. He is a horsehair curler by trade, and identified
the body as that of his son. He recognised him by his
features, and also by a slight scar on the left side of the
neck, caused by a burn, from the time when he was a child.
His name was Richard, his age 14, and witness last saw
him alive that day eight weeks, at 5 minutes past 7 in the
evening in Old-street, St. Luke's. They worked together
at Mrs. Thurtell's, and parted outside the door.
,Witness
sent the boy home to his mother, and, on returning himself,
asked, "If Dick had been home ?" to which the boy's
mother replied, "No." His son wore a dark gray tweed
coat, short cut, with pockets, and moleskin trousers, dark
in colour, with a plaid pattern. His waiscoat was a dark
silk one, with white spots. His clothes were not very good.
He had lace-boats on, which very nearly new, and a black
cloth cap with a peak and braid round the top. He wore
a plaid neckerchief round his neck, and was in good health
when he left home.
Is the body different now ?
Witness (sobbing aloud).—Yes. I don't think he had a
bit of food after he left me. Though rather a delicate boy
naturally, he always had a good appetite, and I never stinted
him. He once had an abscess on the right knee, but it
healed up, and he had no other wound or sore about him.
He was a very good boy, and never stayed out at night.
The evening he was taken away, he and his cousin proposed
going to see the penny Rotunda at Blackfriars. Next morn-
ing, after going to the station-house to make inquiries there,
I went to my brother's to ascertain if his son had been with
him. I could, however, get no tidings of him there. I gave
a description of him at the police-station, and I made every
other inquiry I could, but the boy was not advertised. He
mt
that
eto a n Thursday
night
last,
afbroomut
had never run away from me or been away before. Green, a
policeman,
Bl2agon,
eilgoge
wealinds, toldcamem
t oe
been found. Green took me first by mistake to Hackney, but
at half-past four o'clock we ascertained it was at Acton. When
I left my son on the Monday night he was with George Jack-
son, a boy who worked with him, and lived near. After
being to my brother's I went to George and asked him
where he had left Dick. He said, Is he not come
home yet ?" and I said "No" George then told me that
he went away with a big man in a moleskin or fustian coat,
who had a little green cart with a black pony in it. The
man wore a hat, and had a full face. He said to them,
" Will you boys come and ride with me ? I am going a
little way down the road, and will give you a few halfpence
to mind the horse." Jackson has since always persisted in
the same story. I went back to the station and told the
magistrate what I had thus learned. I have no suspicion
whatever as to how the boy was done away with. He
had at the time 3d. in his pocket, and a little l • h ba
(The witness was much distressed in the.at g.
and during the :proceedings his grief at intervals ls
evidence.
vals broke out
afresh.)
George Jackson, a sharp-looking boy, not quite 11 years
of age, and living with his father, a labourer, at 30, Station-
I street, said—l have seen the body, and recognise it as that
of Richard Medhurst. I know it by the mouth. We
worked together at Mrs. Thurtell's. The last time I saw
him alive was eight weeks ago to-day, in Old-street, on a
Monday night at half-past 7 o'clock. We were standing at
a gate for a certain purpose, not far from a green chaise with
a black pony it, when the man to whom it belonged, and
who wore a white fustian coat, came up and said to me,
"Little boy, come along with me and hold my horse ;"
I said, " Yes," but Dick said, " Don't take him—take me."
They went down to the chaise, which was standing opposite
a coffee-house, and the man gave another boy who was
standing at the pony's head a penny, telling him he would
be in the same place next day. Dick then said, " Shall I
get lip?" and he answered " Yes," and they drove together
quickly down towards Shoreditch.
Thomas Francis, surgeon, at Acton, said,—l first saw the
body of the deceased lad on Monday morning last, at this
house. I found it in a very dirty state, covered with a quan-
tity of matter, which at first appeared to be fcecal
matter, but which afterwards seemed more like an ointment
or application which had been poured over the body or ap-
plied to certain parts of it.
Mr. Wakley : Did you ascertain what it really was ?
Witness : No, I did not, but on the lower part of the
body it looked more like fee cal matter than above, and the
post mortem appearances indicated severe purging. There
were a great many scabs over the body, and an abrasion
over the bridge of the nose, as though from a recent injury.
The right eye was black, and on separating the lids there
was a bloodshot appearance. I found on the right side of
the chest five scratches, as though made by some pronged
instrument, they being at equal distances from each other.
On the left side of the chest there was a small opening
through the skin, and which penetrated to the outer
muscles, but not between the ribs. I found pus at the
bottom of the sinus. There was also a fistulous opening
on the left groin. The prong-like scratches on the right
side were scabbed over. They were at a distance of nearly
half an inch apart, 1-16th of an inch in breadth, and the
centre one was shorter than the rest. There are two other
scratches of the same character, and about the same length,
a little nearer the centre of the chest. The abscess in the
groin had two openings, one a smaller one, leading to the
larger, and the whole about an inch in length. • There
appeared, when I first saw the body, to be marks on the
wrists and ankles, as though from cords, the skin being
_pitted there ; but cannot discover any now. On the sacrum
there was a sore, as though from lying, the skin being
broken there ; and another higher up, apparently from the
same cause. There was also a redness of the skin on the
other prominent parts of the back and sides. The right
orbit exhibited no fracture, and all the bones of the head
seemed entire. I found the left lung, on opening the chest,
most extensively diseased, with a large tubercular cavity,
occupying nearly the whole of it, containing pus and serum
The ulceration had destroyed the pulmonary pleura.
Mr. VVakley : Might the appearances you found be produced
byill-usage and starvation ?

Witness : I think not entirely. I think there must have
been disease before, for it is not probable that there could have
been such an amount of disease in two months.
Mr. Wakley : But the person who could have acted so hor-
rible a part as to throw the body, like that of a dog, without any
covering upon it, into an open ditch, could have acted an equally
brutal part towards the boy when he was alive. Everything
seems to denote that in this case as foul and barbarous a mut-
der has been committed as ever was perpetrated.
Witness : I think there can be no doubt from the evidence
that death was accelerated by oruel usage, but I have nothing
to do with that.
Mr. Wakley, addressing the jury :--There are strong reasons
to believe that this poor boy has been horribly and foully mur-
dered, and if it is a murder there has been cruelty enough in it
for twenty. If the jury agrees with me in that opinion, I will
make an application to the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, who I hope will offer a reward for the discovery
of the man who took the boy away. `The inferenco from the
evidence, as it at present stands is, that when taken away, he
was confined in some loathsome place, starved till disease was
brought on, and killed in that way, if not by direct violence.
It is a case bearing signs of such deliberate and cold-blooded
cruelty, that every possible means should be adopted to bring
the guilty parties to justice.
The jury unanimously expressed their convi-tion that a foul
murder had been committed, and thereupon the inquest was
adjourned till Monday, the 9th day of January, at 1 I o'clock.

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The holly was sacred to Saturn, whose feast was held in
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the mistletoe I