The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-28 00:00:00

UNION-HALL

Yesterday, John Donoghue, a labourer in the employment
of Mem& Nlaudslay, the engineers, of the Westminster-road,
was brought before Mr. SWAUEY, charged on suspicion with
the murder of Honora Donoghue, his wife, a woman of up-
wards of forty years of age.
As many rumours have gone forth with respect to the death
of the deceased, the following will be found to be the correct
particulars relating thereto :—On the proceeding afternoon,
between four and five o'clock, as Sergeant Bent, of the L di-
vision, was ving his rounds, he was called to a house in St.
Albaids-buildings, Lambeth-walk, where a murder was re-
ported to have been committed. He immediately procceded
to the house pointed out to him, and on entering the front
room on the first floor he saw the prisoner seated on a chair
by the side of a bed, lying on which was a female apparently
dead. The prisoner, whose eyes were stedfastly fixed on the
corpse, seemed so absorbed in grief that he was at first un-
conscious of the pretence of the Sergeant, but when he
looked up and saw him, 'ne merely said that his wife was
dead, and, pointing to two women eho had just entered the
room, said that they would tell the Sergeant the circumstances
under which she had expired. The two women alluded to,
whose names are Ellen Dunn and Sarah Buckley, were
then questioned by the Sergeant, and their account of the
circumstances attending the deceased's death was, that about
four o'clock the same afternoon the prisoner returned home
to his lodgings in St. Alban's-street from work, and find-
ing that his wife was out and the place in disorder, he went
to look for her. On passing the door of No. 20 in the same
street he beard his wile's voice, and tried to get into the
house, but meeting with tome opposition he burst in the door,
On entering the front room on the first floor he saw his wife in
a state of intoxication, dancing and capering about ; and this
so annoyed him that he began to upbraid her for neglecting
her place, and giving herself up to drunkenness. She, how-
ever, paid no regard to his admonitions, but still kept on
dancing about the floor, mimicking her husband, and giving
utterance to the most insulting expressions. The prisoner be-
came rather excited at the reception he met with, lifted his
arm, and gave his wife a blow on the side of the face, and
she fell over a chair which was standing near the spot where
she was struck. She fell heavily on the floor, and the prisoner
accompanied the blow with an expression to the effect that
she was a drunken wretch, and deserved to be treated with
greater severity than ever he had adopted towards her.
Neither the prisoner nor the two women who were in the roam
at the time imagined that his wife had sustained any serious
injury either from the blow or the fall, but upon finding th
she lay perfectly motionless along the floor, the woman Dunn
went and lifted her up, and exclaimed that she was either
dead or ding. The moment that the prisoner heard the
words, he ran and assisted in placing the deceased on the bed,
at which time a few drops of blood issued from her mouth, but
she never spoke a word. The prisoner lost no time in seek-
ing for medical aid, and in the course of a few minutes Mr.
Russell, the surgeon of Brook-street, arrived, and on seeing
her he pronounced that she was quite dead.
The prisoner, on being subsequently taken into custody,
expressed his regret at what had happened, said that his
wife was in the habit of neglecting her home, getting drunk,
and staying out, and that he had struck her a blow in the fice
in the afternoon in question in the heat of passion, for her
scandalous conduct. _ _ _

When the prisoner was placed at the bar, Mr. SwABEY, on
perusing the charge as it was entered on the police-sheet, said
that it was not his intention then to enter into an examination
of the prisoner on Oa serious accusation with which he stood
charged.
The Magistrate then said that from the entry of the charge
on the police-sheet it appeared that the woman's death was
caused by a blow inflicted by her husband, and, therefore, to
justify him in the detention of the accused, it was nece,,s2ry
to ascertain whether the Sergeant would be enabled to produce
such evidence as would establish the fact of violence having
been used by the prisoner towards the deceased.
The Sergeant replied in the affirmative, upon which the pri-
soner, who is a quiet, inoffensive-looking, hard-working man,
was asked if he was desirous of saying anything in answer to
the charge ; at the same time he was told that he was not
compelled to say anything to criminate himself, and warned
that perhaps it was best for him to say nothing on the subject
of the accusation at the present stage of the inquiry.
The prisoner, who seemed quite willing to describe all that
had happened on the occasion, said that in compliance with
the Magistrate's suggestion he should defer what he had to say
until the proper time arrived.—The prisoner was remanded.
It has been ascertained that the accused is a sober, honest
man, and has been four years in the service of Messrs. Mauds-
lay, and that Isis wife was a woman of the most drunken habits,
and spent every farthing she could raise in the purchase of liquor.