The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-07 00:00:00

POLICE COURT.-YESTERDAY.

How DID IT HAPPEN ?—A person having the appeat
ance of a foreigner (manner, accent, and all the etcetras),
but from his name and profession, it would appear that
he is a subject of our gracious Queen. charged two
females, named Flora MacDonald and Catherine Com-
Mins, for having stolen some £3 and his watch from
him, in the !!ouse of Lydia Pudley, 28, Shaw Hill-street.
The complainant gate his name as Peter Ryan, a grocer,
residing in Carnarvon, and it appearded that he had
been in Liverpool doing some business, when he met
with the prisoners, who induced him to go to the house
in question, where he was relieved of his money and
watch. The defence was, that the owner of the house
wanted the prisoners to rob the complainant, but they

refused, and tli'm she robbed the man herself, and gave
the prisoners into custody. The most remarkable
feature about the case was, that previous to entering the
house in question, he had been plundered in a similar
house, of over £5O. In the present case, some of the
money (the £3) and the watch were recovered, The
prisoners were discharged.
TilE CONQUEROR CONQUERED. —James Connor, ti
rather juvenile looking person, charged a well dressed
young female, named Jane Taylor, for having stolen £2O
from him. Mr. Black was for the prosecution, and Mr.
Campbell defended the prisoner. The case lasted some
time, and caused a good deal of merriment. It appeared
from the opening statement of Mr Black, and the evi-
dence given to support it, that the complainant was dis-,
charged from the army in the Crimea, where he had.
been in three general engagements, and spent twelve
months in the trenches, and although it did not appear
how many Russian subjects he had deprived the Czar of,
yet it was fully established that some Russian ball was
very near depriving Queen Victoria of a subject. He
came here a short time ago covered with scars and
r ribbons, and a pension for life, together with twenty
sovertiqns in a clasped purse, covered with a piece of
rag. On Friday night the prosecutor was passing along
Dale street, when he WiiB accosted by two females, who
took him into a passage, kpoeked him down, and robbed
him of the money and the clasped purse, and the hit of
rag. lie was not quite sober at the time, but he knew
what he was doing. He said he was worse treated than
he was in three g 'neral fights and the trencs before
Sebastopol. A curious fact connected with the ninneY
was, that one of the sovereigns, the last he got in the

Crimea, had been bitten by Connor, at the time he

received it from the pay serge Iflt, and the mark of his
teeth remained in the coin, and by this the recovery of
the money was effected. The prisoner was arrested at
Birkenhead, where she was drunk and spending money
freely. On her being locked up. a sum of seventeen
sovereigns were found on her, and amongst these was
the marked sovereign alluded to, and this was identified,
and also the prisoner, whom he swore was one
of the women who robbed him. For the
defence, it was attempted to be proved by a
woman, named Nixon, who resides in Gay-street.
whose husband is a foreman in the Stanley Dock. and
two other witnesses, that the prisoner had given £25 to
this Mrs. Nixon on Thursday, and that she had given it
back to the prisoner on Saturday morning. There was,
however, considerable difference in the stories told by
the witnesses in this respect, and Mr. Bluck character-
ised it as a got-up story. After two speeches from the
learned gentlemen on both sides, Mrs. Nixon was again
called, and swore that the prisoner slept in the same
room as she did on Friday night, and that she was not
out at the time of the robbery at all. Mr. Bolton said
the marked sovereign was the great difficulty in the
case. Taking the evidence given by Mrs. Nixon, who,
for anything that appearei, was respectable, it was very
hard to reconcile it with other portions of the testimony.
He asked the prisoner what business she was, and
she replied a dressmaker. After some consultation with
Mr. Wybergh, his worship discharged the prisoner. Mr.
Block stated that he would produce witnesses to -show
that the witnesses for the defence was not as " respect-
able" as they seemed ; and he also stated that as his client
had got the £l7, he certainly would retain it. He al,o
added, that he would have the case investigated again,
as he considered the charge proved as clearly as any
charge ever made in a court.
STREET ROBBERY. Two persons, named John
Roosan and Daniel Dodd, were charged by a mariner,
named Richard Noscoe, with having robbed him of a
gold watch in Lime-street. Mr. D )dd was for the
prisoners. The prosecutor said : About twelve o'clock
on Monday night he was going home in Lime-street,
when the prisoner Roosan came up to, and struck him,
at the same time snatching his watch, with which lie got
away. There was a second person with the prisoner,
supposed to be Dodd, who was subsequently arrested at
the station, when Roosan was charged. It appeared
that the prosecutor and two friends were proceeding
along Lime-street, when, as be swore, the prisoner
Roosan came up to him, and, without any provocation,
knocked him down ; he got up and struck the prisoner,
when the latter snatched his watch, value £lO 10s, and
got off with it, but he was arrested almost immediately,
yet the watch was not found. He could not swear
positively to the prisoner Dodd, and, therefore, he was
discharged. The prosecutor was examined at consider-
able length by Mr. Dodd, and he admitted that be had.
been at some houses with his friends, where they bad
drink, but he maintained that lie was sober enough at
the time. Mr. Dodd pressed him at some length to tell
the last house he was in, and at length the witness said
the last house he was in was in the Argyle Rooms,
Newington, but he denied having any drink there, nor
could he tell if wine or spirits were sold in the Rooms.
Mr. Dodd : What was going on in the Argyle Rooms
when you were there ? Witness : Not drinking, at any
rate. Mr. Dodd : On your oath, sir, do you not
know that it is a place frequented by prostitutes ? Wit-
ness :I do not. Mr. Dodd : What hour was it when
you-were there ? Witness: About half-past eleven.
Mr. Dodd : And what was going on there then ? Witness :
Dancing. Mr. Dodd : And were there females there at
the time ? Witness: Yes, plenty of them. Mr Dodd :
And do you swear these were respectable females danc-
ing in a public room at half-past eleven o'clock at night?
Witness : I won't swear what sort of females they
Mr. Dodd : Will you not swear that they were
common women of the town? Witness : I will not
swear that. Mr. Dodd : Will you swear that they were
respectable; Witness? No, I will not. Mr. Dodd:
Will you swear that some of these respectable females 11,
who were dancing at half-past eleven o'clock in the
Argyle Rooms, did not take your watch from you there ?
Witness: Yes, I will swear I had it in the street, and
that the prisoner took it. After a long cross-examina-
tion. and the production of the complainant's two
friends, the prisoner was remanded, in order to give
time to look for the watch, as it, had not yet been
recovered. _
A STRANGE BROXER.—A very old woman, named.
Sarah Martin, who resides in Atherton-street, was
brought up by detectives Povey and M'Culloch, who said
they searched her house, and found between six and
seven hundred weight of lead there, for which she could
not account. A gentleman, who said his name was
Walker, and that he was the managing partner of Walker,
Parker and Co., came forward, and said the old woman
bought the lead for his firm ; she "purchased lead every
where for the house, and sold it to the house, and to the
house only." Mr. Wybergh : Then, in fact, she is your
broker? Mr. Walker: Yes; her husband purchased.
for us for over twenty years, and she has done so since
his death ; she is a very honest old woman. The prisoner
said she purchased the lead at St. Helens for the Messrs.
Walker. She was discharged.
ROBBERY or A SAILOR.-Margaret M'Donald and
Catherine Fellowes, were chargt•d for robbing the mate
of a ship, who said he was a native of Hamburg, and.
gave his name as Henry Stiepen. Mr. Block defended.
rite complainant was lured into a house in Peter-street,
where he was robbed of £7 lOs by th 3 prisoners, a
portion of which was recovered. The prisoners were
committed for two months,

i were,

(BEFORE MR. MANSFIELD.)

George Roberts, the boy who stool remanded from.
Monday on a charge of deserting his ship, was sent to
gaol for three months, as he preferred that to going back.
This case was reported in yesterday's paper.
VIOLENT Assa.tmTs.—Bridget Rigley was charged for
having committed a violent assault on Catherine Bran-
gan. The complainant lodged with the prisoner in
Charter's-street, and on the previous night some angry
words took place between them, when the prisoner
struck the complainant a violent blow with a jug on the
forehead, and inflicted a serious wound on her head.
She was committed for trial.
Philip Neill was charged for having committed a
desperate assault on his wife, who was not able to attend.
in consequence of the injuries inflicted on her, and the
s prisonerlLtl
Nia was rueNmpaunad e
FALSEd for c
seven
COLOURS,—
o u days. Rs.
A respectably
dressed middle-aged man, late a ship master, named
Alexander M‘Gowan, was charged with obtaining
money under false pretences under the following cir-
cumstances :—On Saturday evening last he went to the
lodging-house of Mrs. Carey, Upper Stanhope-street,
and represented himself as Captain Ronalds, of the Lord
Althorp, just arrived in port. Mrs. Carey agreed to
receive him as a lodger, and after the terms had been
agreed on, he borrowed 12s from her, under the pretence
that having only just reached Liverpool he was short of
money. In a few days she discovered that he was not
the person he represented himself to be, and gave him
into custody. Several other lodging-house keepers also
attended to prefer a like charge against him, but in
those cases it appeared that he gave his proper name,
though falsely representing himself in other respects.
One of the witnesses, however, stated that he believed
the prisoner had been, some years since, master of the
Lord Althorp. He was remanded to this day,

OTHE LATE FAILURE AT B ELF sr .—Anftdjourned meeting
of the creditors of John Mackenzie and Co., Belfast, was
held on Thuisday, when a statement was presented, show-
ing liabilities amounting to £87,442, and assets amounting
to £21,403, and a dividend of 45 6d in the pound was pro-
posed and adopted by the meeting,