The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-30 00:00:00

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—Durham, July 27.

CROii7lsf COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice WIGHTMAN.)
Jelin Dell, aged 26, was Indicted fur having feloniously,
and against her will, committed a rape upon Jane Ste-
venson, his own servant, a girl of 17 years of age.
Mr. Otter appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. Bliss
and Mr. Matthews were counsel for the prosecutor, who
is a married man, carrying on the business of master
coachmaker, in the town of Barnard Castle.
The prosecutrix, upon being examined, said that she
came into the prisoner's service on the 23d of last May,
and that on Sunday, the 28th of June, her sister, who
lives at Staindrop, had been over to Barnard Castle,
when, in the afternoon, at about four o'clock, the sister
being on her return home, she, the witness, went about
two miles with her on the way. Having lett her to come
back to Barnard Castle, she met the prisoner, who had
followed them, and he, after some persuasion, represent-
ing that there was a nearer road across some fields,
caused her to accompany him that way. She
soon found when they • had got some hundreds
of yards from the road that he was leading her
where there was no public path. He said, how
ever that they should come to one a little way on, and
that induced her to accompany him into some fields,
where, taking anvantae.e of the loneliness of the place,
he began to take liberties with her, and finally by
violence accomplished his purpose. She said that she
had a long struggle with him, which was perceptible
from the state of the ground in a grass field where this
happened, and in which the grass was beaten down for
about five yards. He afterwards forcibly detained her
there for upwards of half an hour. But in the mean-
time she had once made her escape for a distance, having
ran into a corn-field, and there trodden down a good deal
of the corn in her endeavours to get away.
The girl, who was a person of most respectable ap-
pearance for her station, then said that she had men-
tioned the matter immediately on getting to the town,
towards which the prisoner accompanied her. She had
not told it to the first female she saw, but did to a Mrs.
Raines, with whom she was better acquainted. That
she Lad done so was proved by Mrs. Raines and others.
A surgeon was called in to see her the same night,
and an officer, sent to look at the spot, confirmed her
as to the condition of the grass-field and the corn-field.
In her cross-examination the prosecutrix admitted
that she had stolen 25., about two years ago, from a Mrs.
Railton, having, as she proceeded to say, obtained the
money by breaking into the window of the house. She
had also been charged with stealing 2s. in the same way
from another person. She now admitted that she had
Committed that theft also, and in the same way, by get-
ting in at the window.
Mrs. Railton, one of the witnesses for the defence,
swore that she would not believe the girl upon her oath.

It had been asserted by the witnesses for the prosecu-
tion that the girl was much disturbed and distressed, and
and that her bonnet and dress bore evident marks of
violence, when she came home on the Sunday. Other
witnesses, for the defence, denied both these, and several
of the prisoner's witnesses, stated t'at they had pre-
viously seen the p;osecutrix and the prisoner upon such
terms of familiarity as to occasion jealousy between the
husband and his wife.
After his Lordship's summing up, the jury were
about an hour in deliberating upon their verdict, when
they came in, returning a verdict of Not Guilty, adding,
that they entertained a doubt, and gave the prisoner the
benefit of it.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT—Derby, July 28.
CRIMINAL COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice COLERIDGE.)
DAMAGING A STOCKING FRAME.
Samuel Scotlent, aged 42. was charged with having,
on the 23d of June last, damaged, at Stretton, a stocking
machine, the property of Messrs. Ward, at Alfreton.
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
Nothing of importance had transpired on the Nisi
Prius side up to the time of sending off our dispatch.