The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-21 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.—This Day.

OLD COURT.
(Before Mr. Baron Pigott.)

THE CHARGE OF ATTEMPTING TO MURDER A WIFE IN

LEICESTER SQUARE.

John Williams, aged 36, surrendered to answer an in-
dictment charging h'An with assaulting Annie Williams,
his wife, with intent to kill and murder her. In several
other counts he was charged with wounding with intent to
do grievous bodily harm. _ _

The prosecutrix said on the evening of the 25th of
August last,:about half pest 10, she was walking in Leices-
ter-equere, in the direction of the Alhambra. A gentle-
man was with her, and while so walking the prisoner came
up and asked her to leave the gentleman and come with
him. Tho gentleman told him to go away, when the pri-
soner said she was his wife, and ought not to be walking
there. The prisoner then struck her with a knife in the
neck. The weapon broke, and he then threw it away.
The prosecutria rushed to the Sabl-Jaiere Hotel, followed
by the prisoner, when she found her throat cut, and a
medical man was sent for and the prisoner WAS taken into
custody.

Cross-examined by Mr Sleigh—She knew a Mr Cutler,
he was a doctor, and she had known him from a child. Ho
had attended her mother. She had been married to the pri-
soner 14 years. They lived happy together for several years
at Barnstaple, but they afterwards came to L'ndon about
four years ago. She was residing in Nutford-place. She
had an illness at that time. Dr Cutler visited her there
several times. She lost sight of him for about 18 months.
She was then living with her husband in Brewer-street.
Cutler had become reduced in circumstances, and the pri-
soner entertained and kept him with great kindness. Shortl3
after Cutler came into a fortune of £5OO, and took the
Cock publichouse, Market-street, St. Martin's-lane, and
put the prisoner and witness into it, he also being in the
house, and the result was she cohabited with Cutler.

Mr Sleigh—And you and Cutler actually turned the pri-
soner out of the house.

Witness admitted that was true, and, in answer to further
questions, she admitted she was in the habit of walking the
streets and meeting gentlemen. Her husband had re•
peatedly urged her to give up her abandoned mode of life,
and come to live with him, and he would forgive her. On
the night of the occurrence the prisoner came up and en-
treated her to come home, and when he did so the gentle-
man told him to go away, and she also told him she would
walk with whom she liked, when he struck her.
Polied-constable Conquest said he took the prisoner into
custody, when he found the prosecutrix had been wounded
in the throat. Prisoner then said he was glad he had done
it. He found a broken knife on the pavement.

Mr John Skegg, surgeon, of St Martin's-lane, said he
was sent for on the 25th of August to the Sabloniere Hotel,
and Lund the prosecutrix with a wound on the left side of
her neck. It was an incised wound about half an inch in
length, but not a dangerous one.
Inspector Wilson, of the C division, said NI hen the pri-
soner was in the room at Vine-street station he pulled out
100 i 100 a locket, and said it contained the portrait of a man who
had murdered his wife. The prisoner was excited but
Isober.

Business donc

At the close of the evidence for the prosecution,
Mr Sleigh made an earnest appeal to the jury on behalf
of the prisoner, urging the misery the prosecutrix had
brought upon him, by her voluntary cohabitation with the
man Cutler and the abandoned life she had adopted.
Mr Baron Piggott summed up the evidence, and

The jury returned a verdict of unlawfully wounding.
Baron I'iggott, in sentencing the prisoner, said he was
not justified in taking the law into his own hands, and
although sympathy might be felt for him, he had no right
to carry a knife about with him, which could only have
been intended for an improper use. He then sentenced the
prisoner to three months' imprisonment, with hard labour.