The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-04 00:00:00

CHILD MURDER AT LEAMINGTON.

Ann Heatwell, aged 20, was indicted for the
wilful murder of her child at Leamington, on the
29th December last.

The Hon. E. C. Leigh appeared for the prosecu-
tion, and with him Mr. W. S. Dugdale The pri-
soner was undefended.

The prisoner, it appeared, had been hired at a
" mop," or statute fair, to act as domestic servant in
the house of a licensed victualler in Leamington.
On the morning of Tuesday, the 29th, she went
upstairs to the landlady, and told her she had got
"the spasms." Mrs. Wighton, the landlady, told
her to get some brandy and water and go to bed.
The prisoner did so, and the washerwoman was sent
for to do her work. On the washerwoman going
to the prisoner's bedroom an hour or two afterwards,
she was horrified on discovering that Heaterell had
murdered a female child of which she had just been
delivered. From the midst of a pool of blood on
the floor Mrs. Francis, the washerwoman, picked up
a knife, the blade of which showed the bloody work
on which it had been employed. The knife was
one of a number the prisoner had been cleaning.
She subsequently said she had cut the throat of the
child, which was illegitimate. She was no doubt
enciente when engaged at the hiring fair, being
subsequently visited at the Althorre Arms, where
the child was born and destroyed, by the man who
is supposed to be its father.
The medical evidence was to the effect that the
child had breathed, but that this fact did not neces-
sarily and positively indicate that it had been
" born alive" within the meaning of the law,

The Judge said a child was considered to be born
alive when it had been perfectly expelled from the
mother. That was the distinction the law drew
between the firtus in utero and the human being.
The jury brought the prisoner in guilty of murder
with a recommendation to mercy.
The Judge then passed sentence of death on the
prisoner, remarking that he was glad the jury had
the courage to do their duty.

WESTERN CIRCUIT,—WINCHESTER, March 3.

THE CHARGE OF MURDER AT RYDE.

At the Winchester assizes this day, before Baron
Bramwell, Robert Hallett pleaded not guilty to a
charge of wilfully murdering Mary Ann Philps, a
woman with whom he cohabited.

Mr. Cole prosecuted, and Mr. Carter defended
the prisoner.

The case against the accused was, that on the
night of the murder he said the woman had been
quarrelling, and he had charged her with robbing
him, having previously used threats of violence to-
wards her. The next morning the son of the pri-
soner on corning down stairs was horrified at finding
the woman and his father lying on the floor with
their throats cut, she being dead. Medical aid was
procurred for Hallet, and he recovered. The defence
was that Philps, who was a woman of very violent
and drunken habits, had attempted first to cut Hal-
lett's throat, and had then cut her own. Evidence
at great length was gone into.
His Lordship then summed up, and
The jury, after two huars' deliberation, returned
a verdict of not guilty,

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