Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-22 00:00:00

acid. Found 51 grains of oxalic acid in half the contents
of the stsma• h. His Lordship said there was an utter
blank in the evidence, as to how, wle n, and wh,re the
poison was adminiitered. No p ,n was proved to have
been in porseFsion of the prisoner. He had allossved the
evidence to go so far in order to-see what could be proved,
and so far as he cenld see, there was no evidence to nff:--et
the prisoner. Mr. Asphaell said, if that was his Is trd-
ship's opinion be had no wish to preei further on the
part of the prosecutiee. The jury returned a rerdict of
not guilty, and the prisoner tees dischireed.
ANTHER CHARGE 7 CHILI) POlaoNtPlO.--giiribeth
Kelty, aged.2s, factory hand, was pieced in the dock
claarg-ed with having at Ashton-under-Lyne, wilfully
murdered her child, Peter:Keity Mr. S,wler and Mr.
Cro's conduotted'the proeecuti in ; Mr. Tit• ler and Mr. Tin-
dal Atkinson., delereled the pri-oner. Mr. Sowler stated the
case at considerable leeg h. It apeeered that the prisoner
lodged in the house, of a woman named E lithe h Gorman,
in Ashton einner-Lyne, She was a widow, •her husbind,
Peter Kelty, hating died in 1856. Her chtl!!, Peter K-lty,
a boy aged tutu year', lived with-her, and ultvets appeared
a heaLhy child and foil of spir to lien, the time when the
occurrence took place which led to the prosecution. About
the Bth of -June, the prisen r e ,me home suddenly one
morning from her work, and stated to Mrs. Gorman that
the boy Peter was very ill, and likely to die of the some
complaint which killed his father, namely, asthma. Mrs
Gorman was very much surorieeil at ties, rev.r having
observed any symptoms of-illness in the child. bat the
prisoner told her she had been with Dr. Masten, and that
he told her the child would p-nhibly not live a reek. The
prisoner wished to keen the snil.l in had from -that time.
but it would not stay. On the 16 hof "Jane the pris eser
to, k thecbild to Mr. Robert W od, sure to, of Ashur].
-under-Lyme, •rrho told her he could not sea anything the
matter with it, but at her requ st,psescrihed some powder
'for it. A day or two after she took the child tn Mr.
Thomas Wood, surgeon, brother of Mr. R 'ben 1.1r0,d,
cud told him it was subject to II s and internal eon_
stillsions, Mr. Thomas Wood said be could not perceive
anything wrong wide the child, but he also presclbed
same medicine fire it. Some-days after, the prisoner went
to a woman named Mary James, and asked her to procure
her a pennyworth of late lanum Mrs. James asked why
she would not go-herself, and the •prisoner sa.d she was at
Afr. Mostyn's shop the other day, that he gave her some
staff which she did net like, and left behind her. and the',
therefore, she did not wish to go there again. Mr. hireeve
wasp druggist in Ashton-undereleyne. --She also said she
hae been at Mr. Woods the prevents night to get some
lautilaun, which he refused to give her. -It sahsequentlY
'lP:leafed that neither of these stories were true. A ter
Some pPrsnasion, Mrs. James went to Mestyn's and got
a pennyworth of lairlanem, which she give to the prisoner
in the presence of a Mrs. Kenyon. While Mrs. James was
away, Mrs. Kenyon said to the prisoner it vroull be a great
trial to use n chili of the age of her boy, and the prisoner
replied that it would sot, and that she would not shed a
tear-if ha died before morning. To another witness she
made a similar remark, saline she would not drop a tear if
the child died, fer she had had eiough both of his fatter
and of him. On the morning of Saturday, the 20th, the
prisoner went out. leaving the child in bed. Tne
child asked Mrs. Gorman to dress him, which she did.
He comp' tined ve'y mach or head-ache and sickness, but
nevertheless went out to play in the streets as .useal. He
bad been cnnpleiaing very much on the morning previous
of head-ache, and Mr. Wood had been ceded in. The
child seemed to grose better diving the day, tat at nighr,
after his mother cams home, he became bad again. On
the night of Saturday the -chili became very sick. The
prisoner and the child slept in the same room with Mrs.
Gorman, and the latter was awakened by heari, g the child
vomiting. It vomited a brown lie lid, which ths prisnner
wiped up. At half-past seven o'clock on Sited ty -znorning
the cbill died. Thcprisoner went to Mr. Wood,surgeon,
and endeavoured to induce him to give her a certificate
that the child had died of convulsions. Ile decline] to do
so, ,coocei ring it strange that the.child, who was much
better when he saw it an Saturday, should have died se
soon after. He asked her it the child was enrolled in a
burial society, to which she replied in the negative, saying
that he was " out of beaet." Nevertheless, it appeared
that the child was then enrolled in a burial society
at Seeley-hridgs, and that only the day before
she had celled upon the secretary to ascertain who
the collector of her district was. She endeavoured to
-induce sir. Weeds' diughter to write, the word "fits"
across the bill which she received from Mr. Wood. but
Miss Wood declined doing se. Finally, Mr. Thos. Wood
wi.ot, the word .4 convulsions" acres: the bill, and it
appeared that the prisoner receive I £4 horn _the B irial
Society. Several me/3:W geneemen were called to speak
as to the symptoms of poisoning by I avian= and opium.
It did not appear that lau:anum was found in the body,
but muriatic acid was detected, which was stated to be

usually evolved by it. Some of the witnesses called for
the prosecution sp)ke of the prisoner as having always
appeared a kind and loving mother. E witnes•es also
stated that the child appeared to them to be -ickly, and
suffering from asthma. Mr. Tinial Atkinson addressed the
jury no the part of the pris•ner,dwel/ingscrungly up,oi the
fits that the presence of landununi was not detected in the
body,contending teat none of the symptoms .4escribed were
inconsistent w:th d-atn fr im natural c lases. The purch Ise
of the laudanum by the prisoner, as described, he ureed was
merely to be exp!ained by the prae:ice unhappily s f fre-
quent among women of the poorer classes, of adiniriiiterine
small doses of la uda'iun as a s 'dative, to induce sleep and
quiet with Fickly and re ,tless children. His 14,rdship
summed up the evidence. The jury found a verdict of nut
guilty.
The curt rase shortly after sev3n
BEI, OZE M BL SS Q. C.
Cow &BALING —William Waters, aged 37, butcher, snd
Job Moly nen!, age 40, butcher, sere charged with haviokt
at Walton-on-the-Hill, on the 25th of July last, stole two
cows belonging to John .M.L.tivery. The jury found a
verdict of not guilty.
BUZGLARY.— James Fitton, aged.. 5, weaver, was charged
with having on the 13th July last, bur,4laroasly entered
the house of Patrick Stanton for the purpose of stealing.
The jury acquitted the prisoner.
ROBBERY —Richard Ratcliffe, aged SI, cillier, was
charged with having at Upholland, on the 29 hof July
last, stole a coat, a pair of trousers, a jacket, and several
other articles from John Barton ; and also with having
upon the 28th of July stolen a quantity of °oilier.' picks
at Rainford the property of Mr. John Cowley. The
prisoner was found not pill.
Foamy BY A LIVIWOOL ATTIANEY —Jahn Mattock,
solicitor, of Liverpool, who was committed of forgery, was
sentenced to three bears p.nal servitude.