The Sun.
London, England, 1812-08-05 00:00:00

WARWICK ASSIZES.

On Wednesday morning, at eight o'cloA., Mr.
Justice Gibbs proceeded to the trial of Thomas
Tole, for the murder of Michael. -111‘Comesky, in
the parish of Curdwoitb.
.Mr. Clarke, Counsel for the prosecution, open-
ed the case to the Airy, and stated the cin um-
stances under which the murder was committed..
He afterwards proceeded to call his witnesses ;
the first of whom Was,
Win. Adam a servant of Illessrs. Bridgwood
,

living near Minworth. He remembers that on
the 7th June, about seven o'clock, he rode a horse
of his master's to be shod ; went through Park-
lane, and coming back the same way, about 200
yards further, he saw somebody lie in the road,
at which his, mare started and. run . away; soon
after he and John Smith went and looked at the
body; it appeared to be dead; there was a -deep
cut at the back and front of the head. When he
went with the horse,. no body lay in the place
where the deceased was found. He said the road
in which the deceased was found, was not a pub-
lic road ; it W4is quite day-light,- as'inuch: so as at
any other part of the day...
Wm. Dunn-keeps the White Horse public-house,
at Litchfield. He remembers the prisoner and the
deceased coming to his house, the sth June, at,
four o'clock in the morning. The.deceased came
in first, and said he was recommended to his
house; said they had been up all,lnight, and
wished to go to bed. • • ,
Eleanor Lemmon, the wife of a serjeant, in the
Sussex -.Militia, now, encamped on Hill Common;
near Sutton Goldfield, remembers the prisoner and
deceased ,coming to the .camp on the Saturday
about a month ago ; it was between eleven and
twelve o'clock ; they had two bundles of cloth'
with them. She bought a piece of cloth of the
prisoner, and paid the deceased for it ;. she paid it
in a one pou ad hill that was very dirty and ragged.'
She paid the deceased, because the prisoner said
lie Nas his master.
.

Jahn Henry Lees, lives at Beacon's End ; he
apprehended the prisoner in a field near his mo-
ther's house, at Beacon's End ; prisoner was fold-
ing some cloth up in his great coat. When the
prisoner saw witness, he seemed confused ; I/ had
three bundles of cloth with him. Witness told
him that from the description he bad, he had no
doubt but he was the man who had done the mur-
der. He saw some blood on a part of his clothes :
what be saw was a spot or two pa the outside of
his clothes.

Tames Worsey, constable of Castle Bromwich.
The prisoner was delivered into his. custody, to-
gether with the pieces of cloth,
.which. were
bloody. lie searched the prisoner that night,
and found upon him, 'among other
.things,
poeket-book, containing sonie bank of .England
notes, and a Birmingham Bank note ; two purses,
one, long, the other shOrter ; and- some half-
pence. Ile stripped. the prisoner, anir found on
his small Clothes two spots 'of blood.

The pocket book was produced in Court, con-
taining one Tamworth bill and some Bank of
England bills. Mrs. Allen, who keeps a shop at
Litchfield, believes the book to be the same that
was shewn to her by the deceased, and likewise
the lowb , purse
•

Eleanor Lernmon believed the note-which she
paid to the deceased at the camp on Rill Com-
mon,. to be the same produCed in the pocket
book.

'The bundles of cloth Were then produced, and
marks of biotic' were visible on each of them ;
two were spotted with blood ; and one of them
had a. large mark 'of blood thereon.
Mr: Gerge Freer, is a surgeon in,l,3irmingham ;
he was called in to examine the body, at Min-
worth ; there was a deep cut on his chin, a very
deep cut at the back part of ins head, and the
skull was fractured. There were four small holes
in the forehead, which formed a square, which
points Were occasioned in his judgment, by the
pressure without of- the instruMent which gave
the wound. The interior part of the indention
was forced into the brain. The bones of the nose
were broken down, and witness conceives the
whole injury was done at once, and the blow was
struck by a large body of some kind. He thinks
the wounds might have been inflicted by a large
stone ; they.werecertainly the cause of his death.

[Here the evidence on the part of the prosecu-
tion closed.]

The prisoner being called on for his defence,
said he was quite innocent of the crime laid to his
charge,. and that the money he had in his posses-
sion was part of. the produce of nine pigs, which
he brought froth Ireland, and sold at a fair near
Liverpool, for 211. 2s.—With respect to the linen
cloth, he said, before he and the deceased parted
from each other, he
_received the cloth from • the
deceased, and had never seen him from that time
until he was taken into custody, and saw the dead
body. He pleaded mercy, on the. ground of his
having a wife and nine children, and.to the time
of' his removal from the Bar, persisted in declar-
ing his innocence.,
His Lordship proceeded to address the JUry,
which he did in the itiOst:impresSive'lllithlCl-s,and
having read over the
,whole evidence that had
been adduced agaiiiSt the prisoner, commented on
the several parts at considerable length. The
.Tury consulted for about tWo minutes, and returnt
• ed a verdict, Guilty,
The Learned Judge immediately proceeded to

pass the sentence off-the law upon the priSoner,
whOm he advised to Spend the short time he had
to live in fervent prayer to that Almighty eing,
at whose gracious -throne it would' not be, present-
ed in vain.
The sentence was carried into execution at half
past eleven o'elocli. on 'Friday. He was attended
by the itev. Mr. Laugharne, and previOus thereto by
two Catholic Priests. The rope was adjusted im7
mediately as he appeared'on the 'scaffold, and in
less_than five minutes he was launched into eter-
nity; in the presence of several kundred spec
tators.
The prisoner confessed in the morning, that he
committed the murder with the stone which was
produced in Court and perhaps never was a man
more agitated than he appeared to be at the pror
spect of his approaching fate.