The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 30, 1863.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.
EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OP ROBBING A NIGHT
HOUSE-KEEPER.--SINGULAR REVELATIONS.--Minnie
Wilson, a good-looking girl, about 17 years of age, an
"unfortunate," was charged before Mr. Tyrwhitt with
breaking open a box and stealing 15 sovereigns, the moneys
of Mr. Thomas Howard, who described himself as a
tobacconist of 51, Haymarket.
Mr. Sayer, from the office of Mr. Edward Lewis, of Great
Marlborough-street, appeared for the defence.
The prosecutor said—l keep an oyster shop in the Hay-
market. lam the cook, and look after the place. I lived
with the prisoner some time ago, but as she associated with
pickpockets I complained, and then she left me, saying
that she could live with a man who could get £lOO a
night.
Mr. Sayer—Will you come to the charge.
Prosecutor—She came to the house the night before
Christmas-day, and asked me to lend her some money, and
to let her live there. I agreed to let her sleep there at
Is 6d a night. A few nights ago she said that if I would
lend her £3 be. to get a black moire antique dress out of
pledge she could get on very well. I lent her the money.
Mr. Sayer—This has nothing whatever to do with the
charge.
Prosecutor—The night before last she came in and went
up stairs about 12 o'clock, and presently the barmaid came
running down stairs, and told me that the prisoner had
been to my box. I ran up stairs, and saw the prisoner
leaving the house with a man in a hurried manner. I then
went into my bedroom, and found the box broken open and
all the money gone (£l5) which I had put aside for the rent
out of my hard earnings. I then gave information to the
police in London and Brighton, but the prisoner was taken
in Piccadilly. The man I saw the prisoner with is only
just out of prison.
By Mr. Sayer--I am a cook at 51, Haymarket. lam
not the proprietor. I have not been living on the prisoner's
prostitution for the past two years. I have never been
convicted of felony. I once lived in Rupert.street, but I
did not keep a brothel thera. I kept a cigar shop, but not a
"dress woman." The place was not used as a brothel. I
kept a coffeeshop in the Haymarket. It was not a brothel•
I did not keep women there. My house is not a brothel.
I do not dress women up to send them out, so that I may
live on their prostitution. I did not give the prisoner in
charge because she did not give me the money she received
from a Frenchman. The man the prisoner was with was a
pickpocket. The girls tell me so. They are not respectable
girls, or they would not know him. I have £1 a week
from Mr. Trinder, the proprietor of the place. I dont know
where he comes from, but he is a billiard place keeper in
the City.
Mary Walton, but who gave her name as Polly Walton,
said she was the barmaid.—l heard a noise up stairs,
and on going up I saw the prisoner with a bundle in her
hand and a box open in her master's room.
Mr. Sayer—The master P
Witness—Yes, Mr. Howard. I said " Minnie, what are
you doing," and she said, " _Looking for some paper:" I
then went down stairs, and as soon as I got down she came
down and left.
Mr. Tyrwhitt—Had the box been broken open.

Witness—lt had.
By Mr. Sayer —Mr. Trinder is the master, but I call
Mr. Howard the master, as he hired me and pays me. I
don't know who has given the prisoner her dress.
Mr. Sayer—Now will you swear that you don't know
how that poor girl became possessed of her clothes.
Witness—l don't know. We do not keep clothes for
girls. Prisoner paid some money for her baby, &c.
Mr. Sayer—ls Mr. Howard the father of the prisoner's
child P
Witness—He is very good to it. It is said he is the
father. They do not sleep together. I will swear there
are not four or five girls in the house. Mr. Trinder is a
cousin of Mr. Howard's, and is a billiard-player in the
City, and has a place of his own.
Prosecutor—l've got another witness. (To her.) Now,
go on, and speak up.
Mr. Sayer—This is very indecorous.
Mr. Tyrwhitt (to prosecutor)—Keep quiet, sir.
The witness's evidence was not immaterial.
Wm. Watson, 299 A—The prosecutor gave the prisoner
into custody last night in Piccadilly. She said she had
not taken the moue), and said that why she left the house
was because she went with a gentleman who gave her £3,
with which she bought a jacket. I have seen the chest,
and it is a very strong one, and I can scarcely believe
a girl like the prisoner would have strength sufficient to
break it open. The prosecutor last night made a very dif-
ferent statement to that which he made this morning. He
also admitted that the house in the Haymarket was formerly
a brothel, but not now.
By Mr. Sayer—l have known him some years. I have
not the last hesitation in saying that the house in the Hay-
market is a brothel.
Mr. Sayer then addressed the magistrate in a most for-
cible manner on the prisoner's behalf, and called
Sergeant Appleton, 26 C, who said—l have known the
prosecutor five or six years. He kept a brothel in Regent •
street, and was indicted, but he absconded. He also kept a
brothel in the Haymarket, and the house in the Haymarket
which he keeps now is ono to all intent and purposes. He
has been living on the prostitution of females for years. I
have seen him following poor girls about, and he has four
or five women in his house and sends them out " dressed."
On one occasion I heard cries of "Murder" in the place,
and on breaking open the door saw him having hold of a
poor gill by the hair of her head. Many of the girls are
frightened for him, as, if they do not gly. Jac
charges them with robbing him. He has done so two or
three times.

Mr. Tyrwhitt, after animadverting in very strong terms
on the prosecutor's mode of life, said he believed he had
broken the box open himself and trumped up the charge
against the prisoner. He (Mr. Tyrwhitt) did not even be-
lieve that the prosecutor had the £l5 in his possession.
The prisoner was then discharged.
The decision seemed to cause much satisfaction in court.

WESTMINSTER.
COMMITTAL OF A GENTLEMAN WITHOUT A FINE,—Mr.
John James Barlow was charged with the following dis-
graceful behaviour at the house of a lady considered to be
in a dying state :

The prosecution was supported by Mr. Dodd, solicitor,
who went into very lengthy details of the relation in which
the lady and defendant had stood, and his habits and ordi-

nary conduct, which hal given cause to the present com-
plaint. The defendant was an officer in the navy in former
years, and he and his mother—a lady of the greatest re •
spectability—had long been on terms of friendship, and had
visited at the house of Mrs. Barker, a lady of property, in
Onslow-square, but circumstances had arisen which had
compelled Mrs. Barker and family to forbid him the
house. He was in the habit of getting intoxicated,
and while in that state wrote threatening letters, and went
to the house, where he made great disturbances. Every
remonstrance which kindness oould suggest had been used
to induce the defendant to keep away from the house, but
without success. Mr. Dodd had himself, in kindness, as

the lady's solicitor, endeavoured to prevent a repetition of
the annoyances to which she had been subjected, but de-
fendant, although quiet enough when sober in the morn-
ing, got drunk by night, and then visited Mrs. Barker's
house, On the 7th and Bth inst. particularly he was there,
and in consequence of the continued clamour and disturb-
ance he made a warrant was obtained against him,
and he was taken to the Hammersmith Police
Court last Saturday, when ha was held to bail,
himself in £lOO and two sureties iu £lOO each to keep the
peace. As there was a desire to grant the defendant every
indulgence, his mother and a person having charge of her
lodgings were accepted as bail, although not elegible
in
point of law. Last night, notwithstanding these proceed-
ings, the defendant again presented himself at the house
and created a fresh disturbance, and the family and servants
had deemed it imperative upon them for the safety of Mrs.
Barker to give him into custody. Mrs. Barker was in a
most deplorable and lamentable state of illness, lying upon
a bad from which she was never likely to rise again; her
sleeping apartment was in front of the house, and the dis-
turbance made by the defendant was likely to increase her
malady or produce fatal results, Defendant came last
night in a Hansom cab, and was, as usual,
drunk. He pretended he wanted to see the lady's-
maid, although there was no pretence for doing so, and
when told that she could not be seen that night, declared
he would not leave till he did see her, used threats, and
made such a disturbance that the police was sent for. Dr.
Christian, the medical attendant of the lady, was now pre-
sent, and would show that Mrs. Barker's condition required
that the defendant should be restrained.
Dr. Christian—She is afflicted with a fearful disease, and
her life may almost be despaired of.
Mr. Selfe—ls she in such a state that agitation would in-
crease her malady ?

Dr. Christian—Yes, sir, hemorrhage succeeded one of his
recent visits, as I understand.

Mr. Selfe (to defendant)—What have you to say ?
Defendant—l have nothing to say. lam disgraced by
being in such a position as the present, and really don't
know what to say.
Mr. Selfe—lt is no use to bind the defendant over to keep
the peace. He is already under recognisances which have
been estreated.
Defendant—Will you take my solemn assurance that I
will not repeat this.
Mr. Selfe—No, I will not. You gave an undertaking
not to repeat this when at Hammersmith on Saturday, and
you have broken it. You have been guilty of conduct
unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and 1 can see no
reason why you should not be treated like other defendants
of a lower degree, having forfeited your position as a gentle-
man. 1 shall convict you without a fine for five days to
the House of Correction, and I shall require such security
for three months as shall satisfy me that the lacy is pro..
tected.
Mr. Dodd made some suggestions to test the responsi-
bility of the proposed bail.

Magistratet to a case of great urgency where a poor Irish-
man, named Jeremia Maher, lad been waylaid and nearly
murdered by his countryman, Brian Dunn. The wounded
man was in great peril, and he had to request that the case
should be at once investigated,
Mr, Woolrych—Certainly. Let the prisoner be at once
put in the dock.
Brian Dunn, a very tall, portly man, about 40 years of
age, answered to his name.
Inspector Phillip Beare, of the K division, said he caused
the prisoner to be apprehendedlast night, and was informed
that the man he had waylaid and injured was not likely to
survive.

Mr. Robert Nightingale, M.D , surgeon and apothecary,
of Commercial-terrace, Limeheuse, said he was called upon
to attend Jeremiah Maher, on Monday night at half-past
nine o'clock, and found he had received a most extensive
lacerated wound on the left eye which penetrated the globe
of the eye. He believed the sight was entirely destroyed.
A blunt or heavy Finstrument might have caused the in-
jury. The pulse of the patient was this morning be.ow 60,
and he was in a very critical state.
Dr. Giles said—l do consider the life of the poor man is
in great peril. I don't think he—will recover. There is a
deep cut over the eye lid.

Bridget Maher, of No. 1 Jamaica-place, Limehouse, said
her husband was brought home on Monday night by his
brother and another man with his eye injured, and he had
been very ill ever sinse.
Thomas Ward, a hammerman, stated that on Monday
evening he was in Thomas-street, Limehouse, and saw the
prisoner come from his own place and strike Maher a blow
with a brick on the eye. It was a very heavy blow, Maher
fell to the ground insensible, and did not move for some
time afterwards.

Mr. Woolrych—The blow stunned him ?
Witness—lt did, sir.
Dr. Giles said erysipelas had commenced, and the patient
was very bad indeed.
The prisoner, who was very restless, made no defence,
and Mr. Woolrych remanded him for a week.