The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-25 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTEL LIGRA CB.

HOME CIIICUIT.—LEWES, MARcu 24.
THE ACCIDENT AT THE CLAYTON TUNNEL.

The commission for the county of Sussex was
opened in this town yesterday by Mr, Justice
Wightman, and owing to there not having been a
winter gaol delivery, and other causes, the criminal
business is heavier than has ever been remembered
in this county. The gaol calender already contains
the names of 65 prisoners, and there are no less than
three charges of murder in it, besides a number of
other very serious offences. The case, however, that
will probably create the greatest public interest will
be the charges of manslaughter arising out of the
frightful accident that took place last autumn at
the Clayton tunnel upon the Brighton Railway,
when, it will be remembered, there was an awful
destruction of human life. The question involved in
these inquiries is of such vastimportance in reference
to the safety of railway passengers, that the following
particulars in reference to the subject will no doubt
be of interest. It will be remembered that the
coroner's jury, after several meetings, and
fully lures; j:ating all the circumstances, re-
turned a verdict oilYlanslaughter against Mr. Legge,
the station -master at lelton, upon the ground
11
that the fatal accident had beet occasioned by some
negligence on his part. The usual eel'irse, in such
of
cases, is to return the inquisition to the clerk
assize, and, under ordinary circumstances, cotnaZi
are instructed to prosecute. It was expected that
the railway company would have taken some steps
to have so serious a matter fully inquired into, but
it appears they have taken no steps in the matter,
and their solicitor at Brighton has not given any
intimation of his intention to prefer bills of indict-
ment before the grand jury, and the probable result
of this would have been that no witnesses would be
in attendance to give evidence in support of the in-
quisition, there would have been no solicitor or
counsel to conduct the case, and from the want of
proof the inquisition would have failed, and there
would have been an end of the matter. It appears
however that the officials upon this circuit who re-
present the crown in criminal matters, having
regard to the importance of this question, and with
a view to obviate as far as possible the failure of
justice from the facts not being laid in a proper
manner before the court, intend to send up bills of
indictment to the grand jury in all the cases, and
thus all chance of the inquiry being stopped by any
technical objections to
he coroner's inquisitiou
a failure of justice from the :riclui.7
o, or
be
tab
veoi
indge d ,on a s
ducted in a proper manner, -+ion of the
counsel will be retained by the dim:—
.s
court to take care that all the necessary stek are
taken to have, this very serious matter fully inquire,.
into. It is also understood that the Town Clerk of
Brighton, as the legal adviser of the magistrates of
that division, will also assist in the prosecution.
There are upwards of 50 witnesses to be examined
in support of these charges, and during the last few
days subpoenas have been applied for by the Town
Clerk of Brighton to procure the attendance of seve-
ral other witnesses, whose evidence is considered
likely to throw some light upon the dreadful cala-
mity.
MIDLAND CIRCUIT.--DERBY, March 24.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Williams.)
THE DERBY MURDER:

The trial of Richard Thorley, aged 35, for the
murder of his sweetheart, Eliza Morrow, at Derby,
on the 13th day of Feb. last, haying been fixed to

take place at nine o'clock this morning, at an early -
hour large crowds began to collect in the vicinity of
the hail, but such were the admirable arrangements
of the chief co-astable, Mr. Fox, that all those who
h. id business to transact in the court were comfor-
tably seated before the " crush" were allowed to
enter. The trial excited great interest, particularly
as it was stated that a course of defence would be
pursued that would reduce the crime to man-
slaughter.
The prisoner, after a short hesitation, pleaded
not guilty.
Mr. Manson and Mr. Huish appeared for the pro-
secution. and Mr. leatman for the defence.
Mr. Manson then stated the case for the prose-
cution. Mr. Joseph German, surgeon, Derby, was,
on the night of the 13th February, fetched to the
house of a woman named Eliza Morrow bet v;reen
eight and nine o'clock. He found Morrow with her
throat cutin several places, and, from the nat are of
the wounds, they could not possibly have been in-
flicted by the deceased's own hands. The wounds in
the neck were deep and long, on e of them extend-
ing from the back of the head to the front of the
throat, whilst another laid open the large vessels of
the neck. The woman died in about a minute after
German's arrival. One of the wounds was a
particularly jagged one, and whoever inflicted the
injuries must have met with considerable resistance
on the part of the victim. The last time the mur-
dered woman was seen alive she was standing at
the top of the Court No, 4, Agard-street, Derby,
talking to the prisoner. Subsequently a man was.
seen by some bays who were playing in the street
at the top of the yard to put his arm round the neck
of the deceased, and lead her towards the top of the
court. The man asked one of the lads, named Wib-
berley, what they were doing there, and so fright-
ened them that they:ran away. Directly afterwards,
however, Wibberley heard a scream and returnee
to the top of the yard, when he saw man
forcing'a woman up against the wall. The woman
struggled and fell down, and the man on the
top of her. The woman's screams were heard by a
female named Underwood, and also by a female
named Boswell, both of whom ran out of their
houses into the court, when they saw the deceased
upon the ground and a man upon the top of her.
That man they would swear was the prisoner 'Thor-
ley. The man got up and ran away. Mr. German,
surgeon, was sent for, and quickly attended, but the
poor woman died in about a minute after his
arrival. A razor was picked up close to the spot
by the woman Boswell, who handed it to Mr. Ger-
man, and that gentleman gave it into the custody
of Inspector Fearn, of the Derby police. Search
was then made for Thorley. About a quarter-past
eight o'clock the same evening he went to the Spa
Inn, Abbey-street, Derby, kept by a Mr. Chapman.
He appeared very hurried and agitated, and his
hands and face were covered with blood, and one
of his hands between the forefinger and the thumb
was cut. The company in the public-house asked
him what he had been doing, and he replied that
he had been in an Irish row at the Abbey Inn, in
the same street, and after drinking two bottles of
ginger-beer, he shook hands with all the persons
present, and bade them farewell. The statement
about the row at the Abbey Inn was not true, and
the landlord of the house would be called to prove
that it was not. Eventually, about 10 o'clock the
same evening, the prisoner was taken into custody
in Canal-street by a detective officer, to whom he
made a statement. _ _ _

Evidence was then called in support of the above
facts, after which Mr. Yeatman addressed the jury
for the prisoner, and Mr. Justice Williams having
summed up,
The jury returned a verdict of " Wilful murder
against Richard Thorley."
The prisoner was not at all moved on the verdict
being pronounced.
The Clerk of the Arraigns then said—Richard
Thorley, what have you to say why sentence of
death should not be passed upon you ?
Prisoner—lt will make no difference in my sen-
tence, but I wish to say that three of the witnesses
have spoken falsely.
Sentence of death was then passed in the usual
form.

WESTERN CIRCUIT.—MARciI 24.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Byles.)
THE ALLEGED MURDER BY A FARMER NEAR
BRIDGWATER.

Wm. Chard, 40, farmer, was indicted for the
wilful murder of Parnell Howe, at Weston Zoyland,
on the 15th February.
The prisoner surrendered to take his trial, and
pleaded not guilty in a firm voice.
Mr. Thring stated the facts of the case. The
prisoner, it appeared, was an opulent farmer, living
upon his own estate, at a farm called Andersea Farm,
in the parish of Weston Zoyland, near Bridgwater.
The deceased was 21 years of age, and had been in
prisoner's service a year and nine months. He had
been in the habit of ill-using her frequently, and
on the day in question he shot her—accidentally it
was alleged on his behalf, he being then under the
influence of drink—with a double-barrelled gun,
the injuries causing almost immediate death. At
the inquest on the body of the deceased the jury
found a verdict of accidental death.

The evidence on behalf of the prosecution was of
considerable length. At its conclusion,
Sergeant Kinglake addressed the jury for the
prisoner, contending that the evidence would neither
bear out a charge of murder nor manslaughter, but
was proof of the death of the girl having resulted
from accident.
The jury retired for about ten minutes, and re-
turned with a verdict of Guilty of manslaughter.
The learned Judge, in sentencing him, said he had
been convicted of the crime of manslaughter, and in
the verdict of the jury he entirely coincided. He
did not believe from the evidence that he deliberately
intended either to kill the deceased, or to do her
grievous bodily harm by shooting. But at the same
time he had been guilty of a brutal assault combined
with gross negligence, ending in the death of an un-
offending and innocent person. He then sentenced
him to 12 months' imprisonment, with hard labour.