Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-05 00:00:00

LANCASHIRE WINTER ASSIZES.

BEFORE MR. JUSTICE WIGHTI.LiN.

His Lordship took his seat on the beach yesterday morning
'at nine o'clock precisely, when a number of prisoners,
against whom the jell had returned true bills, were ar-
raigned. The following cases were then disposed of:
TDB CHANGE OF RAPE AND MURDNR NEAR BORT
Amos Greenwood, aged 23, described in the edendar as
n weaver, stood indicted with having, on the 23 d of Out.
last, relished Mary Jellison, a child wider ten years of
age, and ha stood further charged with h:vieg feloniously
caused the death of the same child. • The details of this
case are tee. lly unfit for the columns of a newspaper, but
the facts elicited en the part of the prosecution were as
fellows :—Toe child, Mary Johnston, was nine years of
age, and lived at Manchester with her parents, who gets a
living by travelling about the country with a stall selling
fruit at cliff:rent faire. Up to the early part of Oc'ober
last she was in the enjoyment of very excellent health, and
was described as much larger in statue, and mere fully
developed than the generality at children at that age.
In that month she went to live with a Mr. and Mrs. Han-
cock, wire also travel ebeut the country from fair to fair,
svith a booth, and was employed to nurse a little baby.
At that time the Tinnier was not in the employ of tee
Hencocke, but on the 14th of October was engaged to
assist in putting np the booth, while they were travelling
about. On the 22nd of October, the Ira,: day being
Heap fair, Hancock, his wife. the" deceased, and the
prisoner went to Heap, and all four occupied ore small
room in a house whe e they stayed. In that room there
were only two bets, in the one of which Hancock and his
wife and child slept, and in the other the deceased and
the prisoner. On that night the deceased went to bed
about half-past seven o'clock ; the prisoner followed her
in about half au hour after, and some time after that
Hancock and his wi'e also went to rest, but had not then
their attention directed to anything that had (as it was
:suggested by the prosecution) eccurred. The next
morning, it being Wigan fair., tilt 'prisoner get up first,
and all roar took the train to Wigan, taking with them
the bed ea which the prisoner and the deceased had slept,
as it was the one that was usually k-pt in the
booth. Oa the Sunday following, in the course of
the afternoo-, the deceased began to complain of
being unwell and suffering from teeing, but no notice
was taken of it at that time beyond sending her
to bed, to have seme reet. She was crying all that night,
and the next morning, Mrs. Hancock, and her neither
a Mrs. Batterworth, (who also treqtrnts fairs) examined
the deceased, tilt result of which was that they took her
to a surgeon, (Mr. Williams) who, after a cursory inter-
view p-escriind for her, and she was taken home and pet
to bed. From what the decmeed sebseqeen ly informed
the two females, in whose charge the deeased was placed,
they went and made a charge against the prisoner, who
denied it, but they insisted upon his going before deceased,
which he reluctantly did, and when by her bed side—he
• said to her " well Polly, you have brought me into a pretty
bobble," her reply was " well then you should not have
done it." He then left the roam, and did not say a word,
lent upon his returning to the booth, in the fair, Mrs.
Hancock asked him what had taken place, when be said
" well, Polly sa3 a I did it ; " upon which M-s. Hancock
immediately said—" well, if she says so I know you did
it, get out of my service," and he was then dismissed.
Finding that she did not get Letter,Mrs. Hancock took her
home, and Dr. Jame.on was called in to atteld her, and sub-
sequently, he was assisted by Mr. Pickford a surgeon, but
on the 2nd of November, she was then in such a dangerous
state that it was deemed advisable to ley the case before the
magistrates of the district, who immediately visited the
deceased, and took her depositi ens, which was to the effect
that on the Thursday night,whilst in bed, the prisoner had
indecently assaulted her, and had hurt her very much, but
she had not mentioned the fact until she had told Mrs
Hancock and Mrs. Butterworth. On Thursday, the sth
of November, the child died from mortification, produced
by a foul and noxious disease, as was proved by a post
vnortem-examination made on the bcdy, on the 7th, by the
medical gentleinen. The prisoner weer aoprehenied in a
village in Cheshire, when he was told the charga aeainst
him, but he denied it. A few doys afterwards, Dr. Jame-
son visited him in person, when he said, I know what
you are come for : you want to knew if I am diseased ;"
and, upon examination, it was dicovered that he bad it in
its most virulent form, and had been of very long standing
A number of- witnesses were callenl to prove the above.
facts ' • the details of which we have given, gs consistent
with decency as possible, on :.count of the importance of
the case, and the magnitude of the charge against the
prisoner. The several medical men were also called, who
expressed no doubt, but that the deceased died from the
causes suggested by the prosecution, and that the prisoner
by his coaduct, had been the cause of it. The counsel for
the prosecution were irressrs. Hopwood and Fearnley, and
the prisoner was represented by Mr. Cobbett, at the
request of the emir. Tee latter gentleman addressed the
jury at consi lerable length, and wide much abi itv, briefly
instructed as he was, in the case, and p inted out some few
circumstances which he thought might he erimirlereci as
inconsistencies on the pa t of the prosecution, and the
effect that those inconsistencies might have upon the
prisoner, aed also the improbability of the statement of
deceased, as to when the offence was committed.
Be concluded by earnestly appealing to the
jury to dismiss from their minds all' prejudice
in the matter, and sageested that in this, case
there might be a doubt raised as to the perpetration.of the
offence by the prisoner ; therefore, he trusted, if they could
do so, they would give the prisoner the benefit of that
doubt: His lordship, in' summing up the evidence to the
was understood to say—as well as he eould be beard
in the "cock-loft" appropriated for the use of the reporters
_in this "magnificent" court of justice, which, for its coot,
certainly should equal, if not excel, similar places in
.England of much less renown than Liverpool, the capital
of the -north —that the prisoner was charged with the crime
of murder, which was a case of the most serious nature
under any circumdancee, and required the most profound
and serious attention; but in the present case thete- were
acme peculiar circumstances attending it. The p isonar
was charged with the murder of the deceased, a
child of very tender years. In the usual cases of murder
there is generally evidence to show, that previous to the
offence -being committed, there has been malice, either
expressed or inflected; but in this case such was not the
case, but the malice was inflicted from the act of the pri-
soner, which the prosecutors say caused her death. It was
said, that from the circumstance of the prisoner having had
intercourse with the deceased; being then committing a
felony—for it was a felony for any person to have inter
course with a child of such very tender age—that he had
caused her death, and that was the m dica which was
shown to prove the act ; in fact, that he had been the cause
of the death of the deceased by an act of felony. His
Lordship then, with great minuteness, recapitulated the
evidence that had been adduced on the trial, upon which he
offered some interesting comments. He concluded by
saying, that the question the jury would have to decide
was that they must be sa'isfied, beyond reasonable doubt,
that the prisoner had had intercourse with the deceased on
the night in question, which was a felony of itself, and
that through that intercourse that her death was caused,
of which the medical testimony offered no doubt.
At two o'clock, the jury expressed a desire to retire, wed
at a quarter to three o'clock returned into court, when the
Foreman said, the jury were agreed upon their verdict—
they were agreed that the prisoner had cawed the death
of the dece sed—but they were not agreed as to whether
the crime was murder or not, as it did not appear that he
knew the result. His lordship: You can if you think
fit, under these circumstances, bring in a verdict of man-
slaughter. After a brief eb:ence a verdict of aggravated,
manslaughter was returned against the prisoner. His
Lordship then proceeded to pass sentence upon the
prisoner, and in doing so, said he had been indicted
for the wilful murder of a child, only ten years of age,
and if the jury bad found him guilty of that, be must have
forfeited his life. But the jury had reason to belLve that
there was no malace on his part, and they did not wish
to imply constructive malice, and bad, therefore, found
him guilty of aggravated manslaughter. For the felony he
lead committed on that child some years ago if ha had been
found guilty, he would have been executed, as it was then
a capital punishment. The sentence of the court was,
that for that most aggravated case of manslaughter that
he had coumitted, he should be confined in penal servitude
for the period of his natural life. [Throughont the trial,
which occupied upwards of five hours, the prisoner, who is
rather above the middle height and thin, appeared to feel
his position in which he was placed, most accutely. At
times every limb trembled, arid he had to support himself
by the rail attached to the dock. He looked deadly pals,
and at times had much difficulty in repressing his tears,
esp.ei liv derinz the time that Mr. Cobbett was addressing
the jury-on his behalf. ]

ATTiMPT AT CHILL MURDER.—JIne l(rby, a ste;,m-
loom weaver, stoed indicted with having attempted
to drown Sarah Jane Robinson, in the river Ribble,
rear Preston. In this case, the prisoner, a respec-
table looking female wis eharg.d. with the awful
crime of attempting to destroy the lite of her own child, of
between six and seven years of age, by drowning. From the
evidence adduced it app,:ared that, on the 8 h of October
last, some men were employed on a ste.-.,m-tug at the old
quay, on the river Ribble, near Prest3n, when their atten-
tion was attracted to some large object Eating down the
centre of the stream. Two men, Fisher and Froliham,
went to see whit it was, when they saw that it was the
body of a female. Fidler, who had previously bf,cn
instrumental in saving the. lives of no less than fourteen
of his fellow creatures from a watery grave, at once