The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-15 00:00:00

Extraordinary Affair at Warwick.

At Warwick, on Saturday, Alice Owen made an
affidavit tending to establish the innocence of
George Cooke, a carver and gilder, who was in-
dicted at the Warwick summer assizes on a charge
of highway robbery with violence, found guilty,
and sentenced to five years' penal servitude. Ac-
cording to her evidence the young man was in bed
at the time the robbery was alleged to have been
committed, and she herself confesses that the money,
for the stealing of which he was convicted, was in
tact never stolen at all, for the prosecutor had given
it to her some time before to keep safe for
him. The following is a summary of the evi-
dence on which Cooke was convicted :—The pro-
secutor stated that he and the prisoner had been
drinking together in several publlc-houses
in Warwick, and that he himself got drunk. About
one o'clock in the morning they started from where
they had been drinking for home, the prisoner
being at the time quite sober. While they were
walking along, the prisoner suddenly turned upon
him, and struck him a severe blow upon the head
with something hard like a stone. From the effects
of that blow he was partially stunned, and fell upon
the pavement. The prisoner then rifled his pockets,
and, having possessed himself of the money, ran
away. Police Constable Waters, who was on
duty near the spot where the assault and
robbery were said to have been committed, proved
finding the prosecutor lying upon the ground,
with blood flowing from a wound at the back of
head. On' being asked what he was doing there,
he answered, " Cooke is a rogue, for he has robbed
me and run away," or words very much to that
effect. Cooke was subsequently apprehended upon
the charge. When taken into custody four half
crowns and a few coppers were found in his posses-
sion.—Mr. Tibbits, for the defendant, attempted to
show that the policeman first suggested the
name of Cooke to the prosecutor when he found
him lying upon the ground, and that then, and
not before, he adopted the notion that Cooke was
the person who had robbed and beaten him. That,
however, Walters flatly denied.—Sergeant Webb
stated hat when the two men confronted each
other at the station-house, prosecutor pointed to
Cooke and said, " That man has robbed me," upon
which Cooke called him all sorts of names, and said
that he knew nothing about his money. It was
shown by the prisoner's mother that he had money
in his pocket before he left home to drink with the
pßawlins deposed that she
wraoes prosecutor: taotr e
r
bedroom Mary
window
when the policeman
Walters found the prosecutor upon the pavement.
The policeman asked him what he did there with his
Green behaved like a man
officer then said, " What
have you done with Cooke?"
stupefied
etdu turned insidedrink. out.
The
Prosecutor replied he
did not know, upon which the policeman said,
" te t
Alice Owen,
it
in Warwick, and
she avers that late on the night in question the pro-
secutor Green and the prisoner Cooke both came to
lie n
teiamirogf ;the offence, was living we will go and find him."
the house where she was in an intoxicated condi-
tion.ba
du
et Green,hi
n although every-
thinge tt, refused to follow
Cwoaoak
de
ewneen ttetopber
his companion, and insisted upon going out into the
street again. Before doing so, however, he emptied
his pockets of all the money they contained, and
handed it to her to keep safe for him, a trust he had
often exercised when visiting her before. He sub-
sequently left the house, and she heard no more
about him, but Cooke remained in bed all night.
In answer to the Magistrate, why She has not made
her statement before, she replied that early next
morning she left Warwick, and it was not until
recently she heard of the undeserved sentence which
had been passed upon Cooke. At present the friends
of the young man are engaged in procuring signa-
tures to a document to be forwarded to Sir George
Grey.

DEATH OF THE YEN, ARCHDEACON BEVAN.—
The death is announced of the Yen. Thomas Bevan,
archdeacon of St. David's, in his 64th year. For more than
30 years the van. archdeacon had been rector of St. Peter's,
Carmarthen, in the gift of St. David's College, Lampeter
(value £l7O, population 4,350)i and ho has also for many
years held the archdeaconry of St. David's, with the pre-
bendal stall of Mydritn, in the cathedral church of that dio-
cese, value about £oo. Ifo resigned his living from ill-
health, atter 30 years of unwearied labour and great minis-
terial usefulness, in Nov., 1863. lie was a very able and
effective preacher ; and, though Evangelical in his views,
ho was moderate and unassuming in his enunciation of
them.