The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING. MARCH 2, 1863.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT—NEWCASLE, Feb, 28
-CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Baron Martin.)
George Vass, ,19, was charged with the wilful
murder of Mary Docharty, on the let January last.
Mr. Digby Seymour, Q.C., and Mr. Bruce ap-
peared for the prosecution, and Mr. Blackwell de-
fended the prisoner.
It appeared from the opening statement of the
learned counsel for .the proseeution, and from the
evidence of the witrteises called, that the deceased
was the wife of John Decherty; a tailor, Newcastle.
She was 50 years of age,sand on the night of the
31st December last her hueband.lhaving given her
3s. she was spending it in drink, when her hus-
band had some words with her aboutlit, and tried to
prevent her entering a publichouse to get more.
He left her and went home. Afterwards a man
named Henry Branscombe and three boys named
William Gillespie, John Bushaw, and John Nesbitt
saw the prisoner bringing the woman out of peas
sage called Stebley's-passage. He had hold of the
woman by the hair of her head and by the arm, and
took her to a street called the West-wttlls, where
she was heard to cry "murder." The • prisoner
shouted, " Lie down, you —." She !cried out,
" Oh, dear !" and lay down on his pushing her
down. At that time she had on a bonnet with red
ribands. He kicked her while she was down, and
Branscombe called out to him, what are you strik-
ing the woman for P and the prisoner answered,
" I'll strike you, you —;" this witness then went
away. The boys remained, and saw the prisoner,
after kicking the deceased while she was down, pull
up her clothes and ravish her. She kicked about
with her legs, and the prisoner struck her over the
face, and the witness Gillespie called out to him,
" Vass, give over; you are killing the woman." The
prisoner replied with some coarse language. He
knew the prisoner before. The woman at the time
was very drunk. The prisoner then got up from
her, and the witness saw him begin to take the
clothes off the lower part of her body and strike
her several times on the face. The prisoner appeared
then to have left the deceased, and about 2 o'clock
on the morning of the Ist of January he appeared
to have gone home, where a young man named
George Story, another named Spencer, and another
named Connor were. He complained that he had
been fighting, and that his hands were bloody. On
these men leaving his home he followed them, and
linking his arm in theirs, said, " Come along the
back walls and I'll take you to a woman. They
went to the back walls and saw a woman lying
dead, covered with a shawl. Story took the shawl
off her, and saw that her face was covered with
blood; as she did not move he said to the others,
" She is dead." Her hand was cold. The prisoner
went and leant against a wall and did not speak.
They then sought for a policeman, and told the pri-
soner he had better wash his hands if he had been
fighting. The.prisoner then went away. William
Tate, a police-constable, having been found, went
to the body, and found it lying dead twenty
yards frein Elliott's-corner, on the back, in the
carriage-way. The clothes were all torn off. Her
legs and breast were bare and dirty, and she had
nothing on her head. Her face was covered with
blood, and he noticed blood on the ground. Her
hair was matted with blood and dirt, the ground
was all paddled about, and there was a quantity of
blood, as if a struggle had taken place. A shoe, a
torn apron, and a piece of a woman's dress were
found near where the body was. The prisoner was
then taken into custody, and accounted for finding
the woman by saying he was going that way and
fell over her. He could not account for his bloody
hands. A post mortem examination of the body of
the deceased showed that her hair was matted with
blood and cinder-dirt, her face completely disfigured
and her nose flattened, and the body generally be-
grimed with dirt. There was a contused wound
over the right hip bone. On examining the head
there was a suffusion of blood under the scalp, and
part of the scalp at the back of the head was de-
tached. The brain was much congested and there
was fluid in the ventricles. The liver was ruptured
by violence. A succession of kicks might have done
it. There was black blood also suffused over the
intestines. The vagina had about a teaspoonful of
cinder-dirt in it. The bones of the face were
smashed in. The clothes of the prisoner had been
examined and there were stains of blood upon them.
The defence raised was that the woman had been
ravished and left there, and that the injuries she
had sustained had probably been caused by a car-
riage-wheel going over her, and that her death was
consistent with there having been no murder at all.
His lordship having summed up the evidence,
The jury retired, and after au absence of 20
minutes returned with a verdict of guilty.
His lordship, having put on the black cap, pro-
ceeded in a very impressive manner to pass the
awful sentence of death on the prisoner in the usual
form, holding out to him not the slightest hope of
mercy.
This case and a charge of rape against a man
named Patrick Manion, aged 21, who, between 5
and 6 on New Year's-morning committed a rape on a
respectable married woman, who had gone from her
mot her's house in Brixton-street, Newcastle, to seek
her husband, and who was ravished in a most brutal
manner in the streets of Newcastle, occupied the
day. The prisoner Manion was found guilty, and
sentenced to be kept in penal servitude for the term
of his natural life.
(Before Mr. Justice Keating.)
William Dsans, aged 26, was charged with the
wilful murder of Thomas Hamilton, at Berwick-
upon-Tweed, on the Ist of November last.
Mr. R. Fowler and Mr. Greenhow appeared for
the prosecution ; and Mr. Campbell Foster (at the
request of the learned Judge) defended the prisoner.
It appeared from the opening statement of the
learned counsel for the prosecution, and from the evi-
dence of the various witnesses called, that the de-
ceased man, Thomas Hamilton, was a farm labourer
with a farmer named Grey, near Berwick, and about
50 years of age. He left Mr. Grey's at Martinmas,
and on the Ist of November went to Berwick, and
there met with the prisoner. At that time he had a
silver watch and about 10s. in money upon him.
About 4 o'clock in the atternoon he was met by a
person named Dixon, who knew bath him and the
prisoner, walking down Hyde-hill, Berwick, towards
the Nag's Head. At that time he was drunk, and
the prisoner was leading him by the arm. They went
into the Nag's Head, and each had a glass of whisky,
and were then seen going towards the walls of the
ralsparts, on which there is a walk, by a man named
Young—the deceased very drunk, and Young ad-
vised the prisoner to put deceased with his back
against the wall. The prisoner said they had not
far to go, and pulled the deceased along. About 7
o'clock Mrs. Ellen Davidson, who lives near the
Cowpont-gate in the walls of the town, and who has
a warehouse in the gateway, crossed the road to her
warehouse. It was then moonlight. She heard a
voice as of trampling and struggling, and a cry of
distress, and looking towards whence it came saw a
man in the act of falling near her door, and a little
man, who resembled the prisoner, running in the di-
rection of the town. A woman named Conolly was
at that time coming down that street, a few minutes'
walk from Mrs. Davidson's house, when she was run
against by the prisoner, whom she knew, and whom
she asked if he had been fighting, or if any one was
in pursuit of him. He told her the bailiffs were
after him, and she was to " keep dark," and said he
would give her a glass. He pulled out of his pocket
a silver watch and some silver, and looked among it
and said he had not a sixpence or a shilling—they
were all 2s. pieces. The police on being sent for by
Mrs. Davidson found the deceased lying near the
weren k , and o
uhnids legsbut apparentlyroned aw
ry, paralysed.
two
six-
pencescarried to the police-office
wfsarcsetdhaltnwthis
in
jury
was
dHoiosr strt eo
in his pocket,
n examinationa n and
as and
dm et
bitenw copper.taos
tpoeuHna
dies
ptweh
naa
_st
sary, and there o
doorstep,
trousers
confusion on the lowest
kicks, and and there was a
bhoisdeyyaensdwpeerreinbelaucmkewneedre, tmhautebthdeisleoowloeurrpeda,rtasofif his
body
e the deceased great pain ;
sal vertebrae, which g-
con-
his legs were
lowest
dorsal
eluded that the spinal cordinjured, and
it was aas
sub-
sequent
dthat
ards and dis
of Mr. Flukey, the susrdgiweoans, The evidence
placed, pressing on the spinal narrow.
Fwasromexamination itnhiisush owe the
most likely to have arisen from a fall, and not from
a kick. It might have arisen from putting a knee
in his back and pulling him violently backward on
to the ground. The prisoner was taken into cus-
tody, and made a statement which he afterwards
declared to be false, and was on the evidence charged
with robbery with violence, the deceased having
been robbed of his watch and three or four florins,
and charging the prisoner with having knocked him
down and kicked him on the loins and back and
elt oieowanse,erde pmagbroottdoysf
ionhgissetrphieoerusfsoal
facts
previously
morteml
vertebraer u l
rd
thate
v iorobbeduhs ys
dhdyiemipn.ogs e
declara-
tion, ehte eol a de-
ceased
y
the deceased, was taken, and on the 25th of De-
cember last he died from the injuries he had re-
ceived to the spine. Before his death the prisoner
made a statement to the gaoler, which was taken
down in writing, in which he confessed
that he had robbed the deceased of his watch and

money, but said he had left him two sixpences in
his pocket and some coppers, lest he should be des-
titute, and had assisted him to button up his clothes
which were buttoned awry. He then left him on the
walls of the town, and not being easy in his mind
about him_ had returned after his tea to look after
him, and after a search bad found him lying near
the flagstaff, he having apparently fallen off the
wall. With some difficulty he got him on his back
and carried him across the country to the Cowpont
gate, and was obliged to rest two or three times as
he went, and he then threw him down at Mrs. Da-
vidson's door, that she or some person passing
might see him, and watched near till he saw the
police take him away. This statement was taken to
the deceased and read over to him, and he in a dy-
ing declaration denied its truth, and said that the
injuries he had received were done by the prisoner
by kicks when he robbed him, and alleging that the
prisoner "had murdered him right out." It was also
shown_ that the distance the prisoner said he had
carried the deceased was 640 yards and was over
very rough ground, with several walls and stiles and
ditches intervening. It was elicited that it was not
impossible for the prisoner to have carried the de-
ceased as stated, but very improbable.
For the defence the drunken state of deceased, as
proved by. several witnesses, was urged as render •
ing his recollection of what had happened to him
not to be relied on. His deposition was but the re-
collection of a drunken man, and his dying declara-
tion was; in. truth, but a copy of hisldeposition, read
over to him, with an averment added to it by the
magistrate's clerk, tlutk he believed he was dying
and had no hope of rvery, and assented to in
monosyllables by the deceased and signed by him.
It was unworthy of any credit as to the facts it
professed to describe. The prisoner's statement was
urged as likely to be true. He admitted the rob-
bery. It was unlikely he should have taken the man
to Mrs. Davidson's door to rob him there, having
the solitude of the walls, where he could do it.
His statement that he left the deceased two six-
pences in his pocket and some copper was con-
firmed, also that he had buttoned the deceased's
dress awry. This would seem to show that the
drunken and helpless man had been robbed and left
as described by the prisoner, and that he was after-
wards found by him and carried to Mrs. Davidson's
door, where he left him. The injury to the spine in
all probability, from the strength of the part in-
jured, could only have been done by a fall on his
back on some stone, from some height, and this
might have happened to the deceased after he was
left alone, or when he was being carried across the
rough country to the Cowpontgate, and was lifted
helpless over the stiles, or when he was thrown
down at Mrs. Davidson's door-step. If the injury
of which he died were received in any of these ways
then it was not an injury inflicted by the prisoner
in the commission of a felony, and the jury must
acquit him, as the crime of murder was not este.
blished.
His Lordship, in summing up, told the jury that
they must be satisfied that the violence which had
resulted in the death of the deceased was used in
committing the robbery; for although the prisoner
might not have intended to murder the deceased,
yet if death resulted from the violence used while
robbing him, that, by the law of England, was
murder, and they must find the prisoner guilty.
But if they were not satisfied of that on the evi-
dence they must acquit him.
The jury retired and, after a short absence, re-
turned with a verdict of Not Guilty.
The prisoner was then put on his trial on a charge
of robbery with violence. He admitted the robbery
but denied any violence. On this occasion he was
not defended, and after the patience of the Court
was much taxed by long and pointless cross-exami-
dons of the winesses by the prisoner, he was found
Guilty, and sentenced to six years' penal servitude.
The case occupied the day.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—GAKHAM, Feb. 27-
Mr. Justice Willes opened the commission here
yesterday, and took his seat in the Crown Court at
10 o'clock this morning.
John Taylor and John Grant were indicted for
setting fire to a stack at Rhyall, the property of
William Wright.
Mr. Palmer appeared for the prosecution.
The prisoners, who had been seen about the vil-
lage begging before the fire brought out, admitted
that they had set fire to the stack, and the only
question was whether they had done so wilfully or
accidentally. The stack was discovered to be on
fire about 1 o'clock of a fine day in August last,
and the prisoners were seen running away from it.
The prosecutor went after them, and asked them to
return with him, which after a short hesitation they
did. They were then given into the custody of a
gamekeeper, and on being asked by him why they
had done it, said they had done it for want, and re-
peated this statement several times. Some soap, a
few rags, a book, and lucifer match were found on

them.
The prisoners, on being called upon for their de-
fence, said that, being in a miserable condition, in
total want of food, and without decent clothing, in
entire ignorance of the person to whom the stack
belonged, they had rashly set fire to it in the hope
of relieving themselves from their destitute condi-

tion, and not from malice.
The learned Judge, after pointing out to the jury
that such a defence was inadmissible in law,
and if
held valid would enable any foreigner landing on
these shores in ignorance of the language to com-
mit any number of acts of
arson
summed up the evidence, and the jy immediately
returned a verdict of guilty. jury
impunity,
The prisoners were then sentenced to be kept in
penal servitude for seven years.
ars of age, pleaded.
Alice Clement, a girl 19 ye
guilty to an indictment which charged her with con-
cealment of the birth of her
illegitimate child, and
was sentenced to be imprisoned for three months
and keptas to
Smith hard labou
wasrindicted for .
a burglary at
Oakham Vicarage on the 24th of October last. d
Mr. Sergeant O'Brien and IVIr Palmer conducted
the prosecution ; the prisoner was defended by Mr.
vicar of
Yeatman.
This case excited great interest in the county, the
Rev. Mr. Finch, the
known as the possessor of many rare and valuable
medals, coins, and other curiosities, a great number
of which were carried off on the occasion in ques-
tion. The Rev. H. Finch lives in a house which
Oakham, being well
stands just outside the town of Oakham, one en-
trance to which lies through a short lane, called
Finch's-lane, leading out of a street called the
Burley-road. The ground floor of the house consists
of a double hall, a dining-room, drawing-room, and
library es suite, and a room in which the man ser-
vant usually sleeps, whose custom it was to bolt
himself in, leaving the key of the door in the lock
on the outside. On the morning after the burglary,
Oct. 25, the housemaid on coming downstairs found
the dining room in confusion, and on calling the
man servant, discovered that he was locked up in
the room in which he slept. She let him out, and
together they examined the dining and drawing
rooms and library, and found indisputable signs that
these rooms had been ransacked by some one in the
course of the night. On examining the house it was
discovered that it had been entered by the library
window, the shutter of which had been forced, an d
on searching the garden there were found a few yards
from that window an iron bar, a wrench, and an
empty bottle, stamped with the words—" Compton,
Uppingham," and which appeared
also observedredfromthe that
ornuma gate
.It a
at the bottom of Finch's-
lane,havethere
wascontained
loading to the house, which had been re-
cently painted, as if some one had rubbed his sleeve
against it. Some cotton and lucifer matches were
discovered in a field a little distance from the house,
and some footmarks, two of which were distinct,
were found in the neighbourhood of the library
window. There were two little dogs in the house
on the night in question, one
of which slept near
the room in which the man-servant was locked up ;
but no one heard either of them give any alarm. In
the house were found some chisels, which appeared
to have been used to force open the boxes and
caskets containing the property which was carried
off. Among the articles were a bead work-bag, an
elk's hoof scent bottle, a miniature case, some agate
cups and spoons, a silver label, and a mother-of-
pearl shuttle. There was also taken a gold snuff-
box covered with enamel, which had been presented
to Lord Hampden 30 or 40 years ago, when am-
bassador at Turin, and which Mr. Finch had been
in the habit of using, but which he had laid by for
some time because the enamel had begun to chip off.
This snuff-box, with the remainder of the articles
lodging
his irig
n as Timothy Jen-
kins, -
name taken, has never been recovered. On examining
into the prisoner's movements previously to and
after the night in question, it was proved that the
prisoner house at Oakham, ac-
companied by his sister and a child, on the 16th of
October; c
that he
a shoemaker, and remained there two days.
The night before the burglary he was at a lodging-
house at Stamford with the woman and child, and
left on the following morning, the 24th, about 10
o'clock. The woman returned to the house with
t
o gave adg
he child on the evening of the next day ; but the
man never
came back. On
the evening of the 24th,

about five o'clock, the woman withraiuignssr
htodltaenthyneaebd.
rrchildvery
y iwns
he
the
et
to a wine merchant's at Uppingham, where she
bought some rum, whieh was given to her in a
bottle similar to that found in Mr. Finch's
grounds,s
c h a
n t
thy:.
wmwojosraeni
"Compton,
woman
gnnausai d
Futgganunahp:
Finch's
also
eephtoopaasthi,
acoabusnehgswodngedeuhenhdri
atotetaa:
hrihhehmmi
wmecseeiueeltidi
ppßdsoospnntfai
abngtmoghhouhpte
f,tea
edw:i
Da
thewi
og
hneuap
okasbo
emmtschnl
aiaoacertmmi
niarhhct
publican
grodaond
taofoihmnrnoteoaelerytccalheotpokiedwfdrgohi
ghsnibosaat
iiioemhsnmnnoc
:afeeha,
because
aoAegsau
e
n
distance from it. This witness, however, had not
seen the prisoner before, and when taken to identify
him was shown the prisoner alone in his cell. The
witness also on cross-examination denied that he
had told Mr. Garton, the governor of the gaol, that
he had not seen the man's face and could not iden-
tify him ; but on these points he was contradicted
by Mr. Garton. On the morning after the burglary
the stolen label was picked up on the Uppingham-
road, about 100 yards from Oakham ; and about
7 o'clock the same morning a man was observed
from a distance of 300 yards in a field in the parish
of Bidbrook, which is about seven miles from Oak-
ham and one mile from Uppingham, walking up
and down and apparently waiting for some one.
The man was dressed similarly to the prisoner ;
and on afterwards searching the place where he had
been walking about, the bead workbag, the elk-hoof
scent-bottle, the miniature case, and the agate cups
and spoons were found under a bramble bush,
covered with hedges. About three on the day fol-
lowing the prisoner went to the lodging-house at
Stamford from which his sister had been previously
taken by the police, and, on learning that his sister
had been apprehended, went away. He was appre-
hended in Nottingham on the 29th of October, and
searched by the policeman, who felt in his pockets
but found nothing. He was then brought to Oak-
ham, and his clothes were taken off and emptied
on to a table which had been previously wiped clean
with a duster. On this occasion a bead similar in
size to those upon the workbag and some little bits
of enamel were found in the pockets. It was also
noticed that the prisoner's coat sleeve was smeared
with paint, apparently corresponding with the
paint on the gate at the bottom of Finch's lane,
which was of a light lead colour, and had been
made in obedience to special directions from Mr.
Finch. The prisoner's boots were also examined,
and were stated by several witnesses to correspond
in length and breadth with the footmarks near the
library window ; but it turned out that Mr. Garton
had been round the house before the footsteps were
discovered, and it was not clear that the footsteps
epoken to by these witnesses were not the footsteps
of Mr. Garton, as there was nothing peculiar about
the footmarks in the shape of marks or nailprints
to distinguish them from the footmarks of any other
boot of a similar size. The wrench, iron bars, and
chisels found in the house and grounds were proved
to have been taken from a wheelwright's shop in the
Burley-road, facing Finch's-lane, which appeared to
have been entered on the night in question by some
one, who had removed the fastening upon the out-
side.
After a long and patient investigation the jury
returned a verdict of guilty, and the prisoner was
sentenced to ten years' penal servitude.
These three cases comprised the whole of the
business at these assizes. There was one civil cause,
and the defendant came with his witnesses pre-
pared to try it, but the plaintiff's courage seems to
have failed him at the last moment, and the cause
was not entered.