The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-21 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE,

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.-DERBY, July 20,

CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr Justice Keating.)
Mary M'Morrow, a miserably-dressed, squalid-looking
woman, about 50 years of age, and who appeared to be
labouring under some distortion of the spine, was placed at
the bar charged with the wilful murder of John M'Morrow,
her husband, at NorthWingfield, on the 9th inst., by setting
fire to him.
Mr Jessel and Mr Stephen conducted the prosecution ;
and Mr Bristowe, who laboured under the disadventage of
being instructed by the prisoner herself from the dock,
appeared to defend her.
The deceased was a miner, of about 61 years of age, and
had for some time lived on bad terms with his wife, owing
to a suspicion he entertained that she had attempted some
four or five years ago to poison him by giving him a pois on-
ous lotion to drink. On June 22 he went with her to Ches-
ter field to attend the funeral of an Irishman. They came
home by train, both somewhat intoxicated, and quarrelling
by the way, and got back to Wingfield about 8 o'clock. The
dispute continued after they reached home, and both left
the house, apparently for the purpose of going somewhere
to get more drink. What transpired afterwards will be best
gathered from the statements of the witnesses and the de-
positions of the deceased taken a few days afterwards. The
deposition, after stating the above facts, continued as follows;
I returned home, where I found the prisoner sitting on a
chair drunk. I told her to go to bed. She said she never
would until she had cut her throat. I went out and told a
neighbour, Mary Ganning, what she said. Sne came in and
told the prisoner to go to bed, but I dont know what answer
the prisoner gave. I than too off my coat and hung it up,
and my hat also. I had then two shirts on, a waistcoat, a
pair of trousers, boots, and stockings. I laid myself down
upon the squab whereon there was only a pallet made of
flock. (It appeared from a plan of the house produced in
court that the squab stood on the left side of the fireplace.)
About 1 o'clock 1 went to sleep, the prisoner being the only
person in the room with me. I never woke until I felt the
fire, which was burning my shirt sleeve and the calico on the
back of my waistcoat. I jumped up and saw the prisoner
running away upstairs. I called for assistance, and I then
heard the prisoner upstairs laughing. The prisoner did not
come downstairs till after the two lodgers, Edward Roff
and another, whose name I do not know, who were in bed,
came down stairs and attempted to put out the fire.
Elizabeth Marriott—l live opposite the prisoner's house.
On the night of June 22, about 12 o'clock, I heard the pri-
soner talking to two persons in the street, and go into the
house. About an hour or an hour and a half afterwards I
heard the deceased crying out "Mary, Mary, come back;
come down stairs. You've run away. Come down and
dout me. In the name of the Lord, is there no one in this
house that will come down to dout me ?" I heard a woman
say " I shall be suffocated, ' and there was a great noise, but
I could not distinguish any other words.
Mary Garrick, a lodger in the prisoner's house, after
corroborating the last witness es to the prisoner talking
iu the street with two persons, said—After the prisoner
came in I heard her speaking to her husband, but he gave no
answer. Some time afterwards I perceived a smell of burn-
ing, and the prisoner came upstairs running and laughing.
She pushed me as I lay in bed, and said, " Are you asleep?"
I heard the deceased calling out, " Come back Mary, and
take the thing off my back." She said, " No, you old rogue;
for I've cooked your goose at last for your lies of me the
last four years." He screeched, " Is there ever a man in the
house to save me, for lam in flames of fire ?" She said he
was only pretending—there was nothing the matter. I ran
downstairs, and saw Hoff and another man, both of whom
were lodging in the house, tearing the shirts off the back of
deceased. The deceased then called for a sheet to throw
over his shoulders, and we all went with him to the police-
man's, leaving the prisoner alone in the house. The same
morning, some hours later, I saw the prisoner pull a coat
from under the squab. The right sleeve was burnt, and not
the left. The deceased said, " Mary, the devil has blinded
you this morning—you've burnt the wrong :sleeve. The
coat has got the right sleeve burnt, but it is my left arm,
and not the right, that is injured." She sa.d, " Let us look
at it." He refused, saying, " I'll take care of this, for the
gentlemen (magistrates) to see it. You shall not make away
with this the same as you did the lotion, four or five years
ago." She said, " You old murderer." He answered,
" You're the murderer" He afterwards asked for a cup of
water. The prisoner would not go for it, and I sent my lad
to get some. When it came she took it up, drank some of
the water and threw the rest on the floor. She said, " I
wish you went away this morning." I said, " What for,
Mary ?" She replied, "If you go away I will give you a
good dress as a present." I said, "I want nothing at all
of :you. Perhaps the gentleman would stop me." She
answered, " They durst not.",
Cross•examined—The prisoner was very much in liquor
when she came home from Chesterfield. When she came
running upstairs she kept laughing all the while, and never
gave over. Sho then smelt very strongly of liquor, but was
not drunk.
Edward Roff, another of the lodgers—l was asleep in the
house, and was aroused by cries of "Murder I" When I
got downstairs I foand the deceased lying on the floor and
another lodger throwing water over him. The left arm of
his shirts and the back of his waistcoat were much burnt.
I searched his pockets and found in them a tobacco box
about half lull of tobacco. I laid it on the tablo at the foot
of the squab. There was a fire in the grate—not a very large
one. I then went with the rest to the policeman's. After
we came back the prisoner raked the tobacco box from under
the grate.
The lodger who first came down to the assistance of the
deceased was not called, as he had left the house the same
morning, end could not be found.
Dennis Gorman, a police constable—The deceased and
the other witness came to my house about 3 o'clock in the
morning. I went back with them and asked the deceased
how he was burnt. He said that he had gone to sleep on
the squab, and when he was awoke by the burning he saw
his wile run upstairs. She said she had been upstairs and
in bed before she heard her husband cry out that he was
on fire, that ho was drunk, and that he must have fallen
into the fire in his drunkenness. She was then raking
the ashes from under the grate, In doing so she pulled
out the tobacco box, and said, " See, here is your tobacco
box. When you fell into the fire it must have fallen out."
Ho said it had not, for .l off had taken it out of his pocket
after ho was burnt, and had put it on the table. Roff
said, " Aye, that it was, John ; I took it out myself.'
I examined the tobacco in the box—it was damp. There
were no marks of fire on the squab or on the flock mattress,
which the prisoner had taken upstairs.
Richard Ronayne, inspector of police—l was at the house
about 11 o'clock in the morning after the deceased was
burnt. I asked the prisoner how long she had been in bed
before she heard the cry of fire from her husband. She said
she thought it was about an hour.
The doctor who examined the deceased proved that he
was much burnt on the back and left side. There were two
small burns about the size of a fourpenny piece on the right
hand. There were none on the right arm. The ribs and
shoulder appeared to have been baked, as if the fire had
smouldered there. The burns on the left arm and side were
of a more superficial character. The deceased lingered till
the 9th of this month when he died from the effects of the
burns.

Mr Bristowe, for the defence, contended that the facts of
the case were consistent with the deceased having set him-
self on fire by accident. His deposition could not be relied
on, for it was clear he was not in a state of sobriety when
he returned from Chesterfield, and he should prove by two
witnesses, whom he was going to call at the especial re-
quest of the prisoner, that the deceased was very drunk at
12 o'clock. It was, therefore, very improbable that his
version of the transaction was sufficiently correct to be relied
on, and by his death it was no longer possible to test it by
cross-examination.
The two persons who had been heard talking to the pri-
soner in the street at 11 or 12 o'clock were then called, and
they both swore that they went into the house and saw the
deceased, who was then very drunk, asleep on the squab
with his clothes on.
His lordship; in summing up, told the jary that the first
question for them was whether the prisoner set her husband
on fire, and, if so, whether she did it wilfully or not. If
they came to the conclusion that she did it and did it
fully' the second question would be, did she do it with in-
tent to deprive her husband of life or to do him some griev-
ous bodily harm. If she did it with either intent, her crime
amounted to murder. If, on the other hand, they thought
she did it with intent to injure or annoy him, or to do any-
thing short of grievous bodily harm, they should find her
guilty of manslaughter.
The jury retired, and after a short absence returned into
court with a verdict of Guilty of manslaughter.
The prisoner was then sentenced to penal servitude for
seven years.

HOME CIRCUIT.—LEwEs, July 20.

The learned Judges arrived here this morning, and Mr
Baron Martin opened the commission—and after attendance
at Divine Service he proceeded to charge the grand jury,
and then both he and Mr Justice Willes proceeded at once
to try prisoners in order to make sure of getting through the
business. The ealendar is in point of number, and, with
hardly an exception in point of gravity, rather light. There
were only 22 cases, almost all of them of an ordinary cha-
racter, and of these the bills were thrown out in several
cases. This was owing to the fact that the County Quar-
ter Sessions were held here the other day, and that on
Monday the Brighton Quarter Sessions were held before
Mr Locke, the Recorder, and a very large number of cases
(nearly 40) being disposed of by him on that day and on
Tuesday, of course the result was considerably to lighten
the calendar, and relieve the learned Judges at the assizes.

CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr Justice Willes.)

The first case tried before the learned Judge was one of
some interest, on account of its bearing on a somewhat im-
portant question of criminal procedure which has been
mooted lately, both in and out of Parliament, with respect
to the propriety of allowing prisoners to be examined. Yes-
terday the point was mentioned at the Brighton Sessions
before Mr Locke, the Recorder, a learned counsel observ-
ing in the course of his address on behalf of a prisoner,that
it would have been well for her if her evidence could have
been taken, as it would have established her innocence.
The learned Recorder, in summing up the case, remarked
upon this, and said that it must be borne in mind that if a
prisoner was permitted to be examined upon bin °wll