The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-06 00:00:00

awe' INTELLIGENCIiki..,
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OXFORD CIRCUIf.—STAFFoRps„...II,E,g4___
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(Before. Mr. JustiOe Metier. '1:-.A* `•_•'-'-:-.F.'',:7;?-,
CHARGE Or MURDERING A PoLICEMAFT - ----.4::
Absalom Simpson, 32, potter, Joitl Hughes, 4Q
potter, and john Wardle, 45, potter, we: e arraigned
charged with the wilful murder of James Crump on
the 19th of August, at Cobridge, in the pafjsh of
Stoke-upon-Trent.
The prosecution was conducted by Mr. Bowyer
and Mr. Brown, while the prisoners were severally
defended by Mr, Moteram, Mr. M'Mahon, Mr.
Kenealey, and Mr. Brindley.
From the opening address and from the evidence
it was shown that the deceased had been a young
man, and a policeman, aged 21, stationed at Burslem,
near Henley. On the 18th of August, having been
told off to duty about nine o'clock, he, going to-
wards a public-house, at Colbridge, called the Black
Boy, met with a fellow police-officer, with whom
he drank. In company with another man they then
proceeded to a public-house about a quarter of a
mile distant, called the Village Tavern, where they
drank together. In the same house were the three
prisoners. The fellow police officer Wells left about
half-past 12, and soon after deceased with the other
man also left, followed in a few minutes by the three
prisoners. Crump and his companion proceeded
together towards the Black Boy for a short dis-
tance, when the former was left to go on by him-
self. On the departure of his eustomers the land-
lord of the Village l'avern fell asleep, and waking
in about half an hour went outside to close the
shutters. When about to do this he heard groans,
and looking down he observed, crouched Ln the
gutter and holding the back of his head, the fig Pre
of a man. Approaching the figure he found it to
be the policeman Crump, bleeding profusely from
wounds in the head. With the landlord's aid he was
then conveyed into the house and properly tended.
On marching the vicinity the staff of the wounded
man was found near the spot in which he had been
taken _up Two or three yards distant his cap, cut
4404 h tiwpeaiswid clotted with• blood and hair,
Wag Also found ; and still further on in the road was
feett.a _pool of blood. Deceased was afterwards re-
moved; and, on being examined by two surgeons,
after
otuhnrdougtohhaan,ve sustained a vertical wound on
the left eyebrow, and a fracture bet the back of the
wounds the two snarl:
skull, through eerotnusr
protruded. Respecting the possible cause of these
a rough iron kerbstone, such as that near
called a ol
lfe which
differedii
think-
ing that they must have been iebthe
;brains
caused by a fall upon
onewh i.ch th e
deceased
a asedhweaasvyfrom a similar
blow lying ; and the
other,weapon to
thatnotiLing
save a
staff could have produced the fracture at the back
of the head. Of these injuries Crump expired in
a few days, identifying, however, before his
death the three prisoners as his assailants.
About the time of the occurrence a woman
living in the neighbotirhod was awoke by a noise of
wrangling, and, opening the window, saw a num-
ber of people in the road, and heard an altercation
as though between a police-officer and a man, who,
in a stern voice, was refusing to move away. Pre-
sently a scuffle was heard, and then the thud of
blows as though inflicted with a staff or stick. Upon
that a scampering of feet was heard, and then a
groan . after which all was quiet. A circumstance
by which it was thought that a motive for the com-
mission of the offence could be imputed to Hughes
in particular consisted in the fact that a short time
previously he had been heard to utter a threat
against deceased. When the prisoners were arrested
they made three several statements, which did not
always correspond with each other.: By Wardle's
statement it would appear that he and his compa-
nions, while walking together outside the public-
house, were ordered to move away by Crump. Simp-
son refused, and a scuffle ensued, during which the
policeman used his staff, and was thrown to the
ground by his antagonist, the other meanwhile
standing aloof and presently going away. During
the hearing of the evidence in support of the fore-
going, it was admitted by one of the witnesses that
deceased on one occasion made an oral statement, in
which he said he and another man with dark whis-
kers had a struggle, duringwhich he (Crump) struck
and marked him with' his staff. Simpson does not
possess whiskers, and when examined a week after
the affray was not found to have sustained any in-
jury or braise. A severe and lengthened cross-exa-
mination was undergone by the same witness re-
specting the authenticity both of the dying state-
ments of the deceased and also of the statements of
the prisoners. It was also shown that while Simp-
son and Wardle were confined in adjacent cells at
the police station a conversation was overheard be-
tween them, in which Wardle exhorted his compa-
nion "to keep his mouth shut and trust to Provi-
dence.'
A mass of evidence having been given,
Mr. Motteram addressed the jury on behalf of
Simpson, and in a long and able address contended
that, inasmuch as no proof had been given that
Crump was in the execution of his duty, the crime
committed could only amount to manslaughter, and
that both from the discrepancy of the statements of
the deceased and also from other evidence given, the
identity of his client had not been proved.
• Mr. M 'Mahon then addressed the jury for Hughes,
and contended that only one individual was respon-
sible for the death of Crump, and that individual
was not his client.
The jury having been addressed by Mr. Kenealey
on behalf of Wardle, _ _

His Lordship summed up, and
The Jury returned a verdict of Acquittal.
The trial lasted nearly 12 hours.

HORRIBLE MURDER Al BIRMINGHAM.

Late on Thursday night a murder, accompanied
with circumstances of unusual atrocity, was com-
mitted in Bissell-street, Birmingham. The victim
is a girl named Alice Insley, aged 17, who lived
with her parents in a court in Bissell-street, and
was employed in a jewellery warehouse in Lower
Essex-street, and the murderer is Hoary Carter,
alias Nobby Hall (not the fighting man who bears
that cognomen), aged 20, a brass founder, living in
Skinner-lane. For some nine months back he has
been keeping company with the deceased, who was
a very good-looking girl, and who did not look upon
him with so much favour as he wished. On Thurs-
day afternoon she went to the funeral of a relative,
and when she returned home she was accompanied
by Carter, who spent the evening with her at the
house of her parents. During the evening all seemed
to go on comfortably enough, and when Carter rose
to leave the house, at about 11 o'clock, the girl
went with him across the yard of the court, and to
the end of the entry leading into the street. Here
they talked together for some time, and a neigh-
bour woman, who was standing outside the entry,
heard Carter say to deceased, " Do you mean it,
Alice?" and heard her reply" I do." A moment later
she heard a pistol shot, and Carter then rushed past
her into the street. She then went up the entry,
and at that end of it nearest the court-yard she
found deceased lying on the ground quite dead.
The people who live in the court assisted in carry-
ing the body of the poor girl into her father's
house, and it was then found that she was shot
through the back, apparently with a pistol bul-
let. Information was at once given to the police,
who were in quest of the murderer until a
quarter before one o'clock, but ockild not hear
anything of him. At that hour, when a large
crowd had collected on the spot where the
murder was oommitted,Carter walked up hurriedly
and was going up the entry when some one cried,
oniliocnie-ceonntsthaeblwe
aMs
Ca
pa pu rs leahnde
dad'
Where is she, I must see her,"
prisoner:eTs the That's
s him.hwia
sn At and
Baying,''
hg,Pe
and tried to break away from the officer and get
into the house where the body
no resistance to the apprehensionwas
. lyiwingn,enbuht
he was
the other having
searched there was found '
charged. In his his pocket a double.-
.troool
pistol, with one barrel loaded and
evidentlytherebeenket
also
o recently
foundd s
a-
number of percussion caps and some powder. When
charged with having murdered the girl he admitted
that it was him who had fired the pistol. It has
since been ascertained that on Thursday afternoon
the prisoner bought threepenny worth of bullets in
Worcester-street, and that among them were two
Minie balls, which just fitted the pistol, and one of
which was in that barrel of the pistol which had
not been discharged, while the other is missing.
When he bought the bullets he showed the shop-
keeper the pistol, and said he had bought it that
day. A girl who worked with deceased stated that
Alice had told her about a week ago that Harryhad
threatened to take either her life or his own.

At the Birmingham Police-court yesterday morn-
ing, before Mr. J. C. S. Kynnersley, the stipendiary
magistrate, Carter was brought up charged with
murder, and was remanded to await the result of
the inquest.

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