The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-06 00:00:00

THAMES.

'Vary Ann Christopher, a woman about twenty-
I lye years of age, was brought before Mr Ballantine,
c hturged with robbing a soldier, named Martin Carey,
of -five sovereigns and ss. Gd. in silver.
`Carey was a private of the 17th Regiment of Foot,
riov i quartered at Dover, and having received a
knot th's furlough for the purpose of visiting his friends
in I reland, he came to London on Friday, for the
put. dose of embarking in a Dublin steamer on the
folic 'wing morning. On Friday afternoon he called
up of ► some old comrades in the Tower, and met with
the prisoner in a canteen there. They left the
To tvershortly before eight o'clock and proceeded to a
hot tse in Johnson's-change, Rosemary-lane. The
soli tier deposited his money, consisting of five sove-
reik pas and ss. Gd. in silver, in his trousers-pocket.
whi eh also contained his furlough, and when he went
to b ed he placed his trousers across the head rail of
the bedstead. He was just dozing off to sleep, when he
hear d his trousers removed, and jumped out of bed
and fo, and the prisoner rifling his pockets. His fur-
louel was in her hand, and in snatching it from her
it ',vas torn. He put his hand in his pocket, and found
Wis mot ley was gone. He immediately seized the
prisone and she clenched her hand, which he en-
(b aeon' •ed to open, and called lustily for the police.
She tb en placed five sovereigns in her mouth, and
alth Daigh the soldier and a police-constable named
Bar 3ei, 88 H, who entered the room, seized her by
the throat, and attempted to make her disgorge the
money, she inanaged by a violent effort to swallow
the whole of the sovereigns. The policeman after-
ward :Thund Carey's silver on the top of his bundle
and cot -ered over with a handkerchief. The woman
was int great pain when she reached the station• house,
ancl, witl .1 a view of recovering the sovereigns as much
ay a pint ; of castor oil was administered to her. In
her dere nce the prisoner stoutly denied taking the
sovereica s or swallowing them, and to convince the
rnagisvau4 2-of the truth of her statement, said she had no

objection to swallow a pailful of castor oil in addition to
a pint she had already taken, but the soldier created
some laughter by suggesting hard dumplings instead.
The prisoner also declared that the soldier was drink-
ing all the afternoon at the canteen, and after
staking his money with the landlord, offered to fight
an artilleryman, and that upon leaving the Tower he
fell in with two " Billingsgate chaps," with whom
he remained some time. It was, however, proved
that the soldier's money was returned to him by the
landlord of the canteen, that he was sober when he left
the Tower, and that not more than an hour had elapsed
before he reached the house in Johnson's-change with
the prisoner.
Barnes said the woman was a well-known thief,
and had been in custody before, and swallowed money
to elude detection.

Mr. BALLANTINE did not see the utility of giving
the woman castor oil, and said he had no doubt she
had stolen the soldier's money, and had recourse to a
plan very common among women of her class to pre-
vent the money being produced in evidence against
her. He committed her to Newgate for trial.