The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-05 00:00:00

NORTIIERN CIRCUIT.—DuIun.m, Dec. 3,

Mr. Justice Wightman opened the commission here yes
:erday, after which his :ordship attended Divine service al
;he Cathedral.

The calendar contains the names of 12 prisoners charged
with various offences. The bills against several of them
were ignored.

His lordship sat this morninc at 10 o'clock for the trial of
prisoners, and charged the grand jury.
Thos. Grant was indicted for a rape on Margaret 1B:s-
-lop, at Billiagham, on the 3d October last.
Mr. Davison and Mr. Fowler prosecuted, and Mr. Camp-
bell Foster defended the prisoner.
It appeared that on S aurday night, the 3d October, the
prosecutrix, who is a married woman with six children, was
going from Port Clarence, where she lived with her hus-
band, to Middlesborough, to make her markotings, about 7
o'clock at night. It was dark, and she had to pass along a
broken piece of road, over which there was a plank to walk
on. She, being short-sighted, asked a man whom she saw
near to assist her over the plank, as it was so dark she could
not see it. He said, " Yes, ma'am, 1 will," and did so.
She had never seen him before. He then walked alongside of
her for some time, and, passing a publichouse, asked her if
she would go in and hare anything to drink. She declined,
and said she was obliged to him. They walked on, and he
asked her if she was married, and where her husband
worked, and when about 150 yards past the public house on
the path, which is there on the railway embankment, and
is very steep, the man suddenly turned round, took liberties
with her, attempted to throw her down, and both fell and
rolled over and over to the bottom of the bank, where, in
spite of her cries and struggles, he committed the offence con-
plained of. Two persons coining that way heard her cry, " Oh
dear, that Irishman." The man had then run away. Her bon-
net and dress were torn and covered with mud, and she
was much bruised. The man, of whom she gave a descrip-
tion to the police, she swore was the prisoner, who is an
Irishman, and was engaged ad a workman on some new
houses building there. One of the persons who came up
had seen the man assisting her over the plank, and he also
swore that the prisoner was the man. There were other
circumstances tending to establish his identity.

The defence was that, supposing the jury to be satisfied
that the offence charged had been committed, the identifi-
cation of the prisoner as the man who had committed it was
not satisfactorily established, as the night was admitted to
be dark, and neither of the witnesses who had spoken to the
prisoner knew him before. It appeared, also, that upwards
of 400 workmen, many of them Irishmen, were employed at
a blast furnace close to the place where the offence was
alleged to have been committed, many of whom were dressed
similarly to the prisoner.
His Lordship having left both points to carefully to the
jury,
Tho jury retired, and on their return found the prisoner
guilty.

His Lordship said the case, from its circumstances, was
one of great aggravation, and for this offence, sot many
years ago, the prisoner would have been sentenced to death.
The sentence of the Court was that he be kept in penal
servitude for 20 years.