The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-25 00:00:00

CHARGE OF CHILD MURDER..

At the High Court of Justiciary, held yesterday,
Mary Scally, , or Scolly, was placed atthetar,
charged with murder, in so far as on Monday bar,
charged
3d March, 1862,anl
at
knownor s
nears t e partshseear
ry
of the
Bridge,Po in
and Clyde Canal
the
attackedpa r is h
boefrFma laklier k
illegitimate, wickedly
child, and
thenfeloniously
about
four or five days old, now deceased, and did throw
or put into the Canal, and leave it there, in conse-
quence whereof it was drowned and deprived of life,
and was thus murdered by her; or otherwise, that
she attacked and assaulted the child by obstructing
its respiration with her hand, by which it was suf-
focated or strangled.
The prisoner, on the charge being read over to
her, pleaded guilty to culpable homicide.
This plea having been accepted by the Solicitor-
General,
Mr. Badenoch Nicholson, who appeared for the
prisoner, proposed to adduce evidence as to the
character of the prisoner.
John Malcolm, examined by Mr. Nicholson, de-
poned—l am a farmer at Bothkenna, Orchardhead.
The prisoner was a domestic servant in my employ-
ment for three years previous to last Martinmas.
She bore an excellent character while in my em-
ployment. She was a kind and obliging girl.
Rev. Mr. Stevenson, examined by Mr.. Nicholson
—I am minister of the parish of Bothkenna. The
farm of Orchardhead is in my parish. lam aware
that the prisoner was a servant at Orchardhead. I
had frequent opportunities of knowing her charac-
ter, which I considered very good.
Mr. Nicholson then briefly addressed the Court
for the prisoner. Ho said she was between nine-
teen and twenty years of age, and when her youth
and the circumstances of the case were taken into
account, he had no doubt their Lordships would deal
leniently in the case. The prisoner's father had
used language towards her which no amount of vice
on the part of a child could justify a father in using.
When the prisoner was only three days delivered of
the child he told her that she would not be allowed
to sit at his fireside with any man's child, and then
drove the girl from the house. Considering the
manner in which she was compelled to leave the
) house—a poor girl driven from her father's house in
a cold wintry day—he thought he need not ask the
sympathy of their Lordships for the prisoner in her
wretched circumstances.
The Lord Justice-General, in passing sentence,
said that it had been proved that the prisoner was
a person of good character, and her counsel had
stated the circumstances under which she had com-
mitted this offence. The prisoner was relieved from
the charge of murder, but she was still convicted of
an ect of violence towards this child. The indict-
ment stated that she deprived the child of life in
one of two ways, either by throwing it into the
Canal, or by feloniously attacking and assaulting it
with her hand, or in some other way obstructing
the respiration of the child. He presumed it was
not the first of these. If it were, it were difficult
to understand how her case could be anything else
than murder. In regard to the second way, it was
possible that the prisoner may not have apprehended
the result which might ensue, and might have
acted harshly, but without the intention of pro-
ducing death, although exposing life to risk. The
Court were disposed to take a lenient view of the
case, but the punishment could not be limited to
imprisonment. The sentence of the Court was
three years' penal servitude.
The prisoner, who sobbed and moaned heavily
during the whole of the proceedings, was then re-
moved.

A GREENWICH COLLEGE-MAN KILLED ON THE
NORTH KENT RAILWAY.—Yesterday afternoon, about four
o'clock,
an aged man named Thomas Payne, an in-pen-
sioner of Greenwich Hospital, was run over and instantly
killed by an express up train, near the Erith station by the
North Kent Railway. It appears that the deceased
had improperly got on to the line of rails for the purpose of
speaking to some person at work near the spot, and being
deaf, did not hear the advancing train until it was too late
to escape.
THE ROBBERY Or £285 at MANCHESTER.--Yes-
terday tho Manchester city magistrates discharged Mr.
John Green, the Nottingham flourdealer, who was appre-
hended in his own town on suspicion of having a guilty
re de-
fence, knowledge of the fact that a £lOO-note, received by him
from amen unknown, was stolen from Mr. George Whaites,
Manchester,foefn,said a um
nAbler;
oE f Nottinghamciwar
des,
N'ho
gentlemen
appeared
fore r
e ready
to w the
to bear testimony to Mr. Green's character.