The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-06 00:00:00

MURDEROUS ATTACK BY A

RAILWAY POLICE-SERGEANT.

ETON, WEDNESDAY.—Yesterday evening a man named
Anthony Thomas Rymes, about forty years of age, the
police-sergeant at the Maidenhead station, in the employ of
the Great Western Railway Company, was brought before
the Rev. Thomas Carter, the sitting magistrate, in custody
of Daniel Sexton, the Maidenhead constable, charged with
having inflicted a serious, and, it is feared, mortal wound,
upon the body of Mr. Henry Plumb, an articled eerk to Mr.
William Ward, solicitor, of Maidenhead, between nine and
ten o'clock on Monday night.
Mr. J. J. Williams, barrister-at-law, and Mr. Ward, soli-
citor, attended on behalf of Mr. Plumb,who was in too weak
and dangerous a state to be present.
The following certificate from Mr. Bellis, surgeon, was
handed to the magistrate:—
" I hereby certify that Mr. Henry Plumb is not able to
attend the magistrates, in consequence of having a punctured
wound in the back."

The prisoner, upon being placed at the bar, appeared per-
fectly cool and unembarrassed.
Mr. John Mahon Williams (a son of Mr. Williams, the
barrister), who was on a visit at Mr. Ward's, at the time of
the unfortunate occurrence, deposed as follows :—I was
taking a walk with Mr. Plumb on Monday evening, at about
half-past nine o'clock, and as we were passing the Dumb
Bell public-house, which is opposite to the Maidenhead sta-
tion, we heard some music, which induced us to stop outside
to hear it. A boy ( who it has since been ascertained was
the son of the prisoner, and who is a page in the service of
a family in the neighbourhood), who was standing near us,.
looked up in Mr. Plumb's face and laughed. Plumb then
remarked, "That's the famous Buttons." I said, "Oh, is it ?"
and walked towards him. The boy then ran away up the road
towards Maidenhead, calling out, " Father, they have been
licking me." 'We ran a little way after the boy, and then
stopped. The boy turned round, when he got Rear the
prisoner's house, and said, " You come here, and we will give
it you." The boy then went in, and we walked on towards
Maidenhead. Just as we got opposite the prisoner's house,
the boy hallooed out two or three times, " It's young Ward,"
evidently mistaking us for Mr. Ward's son. He was in the
garden with his mother. I then saw the prisoner run into the
house, and taking something from off the place on which a
candle was standing, immediately run out again and
jump over the gate into the road. The prisoner's wife called
after him," Make haste, give it them well." Plumb ran avray as
soon as the prisoner came out of the house. I stayed until
he jumped over the gate; but when I saw he was coming
after us, I ran away as fast as I could. Prisoner followed,
and when I found he was close upon me I ran across the road
and jumped over the fence into the ground next to the rail-
way. Prisoner followed Plumb, calling out to some men in
the road, " Stop the young blackguard." I heard one of
these men say, " I shall not stop him; what has he _ done?"_
Almost immediately afterwards I heard the cries of Plumb.
I heard him distinctly say, " Have mercy on me, and don't
hit me with that." 1 Vien ran across to the railway on to
Mr. Ward's house fi r assistance, and returned with Mr.
Ward's man-servant. 0.1 our return we found Mr. Plumb
at the King's Arms Inn, Maidenhead-bridge, attended by
Mr. Bellis, the surgeon. As soon as I saw Plumb, and the
dreadful state he was in, I fainted away.
The shirt, waistcoat, trousers, and coat, worn by Mr.
Plumb at the time he was attacked by the prisoner, were
produced by Sexton the constable. The lower part of the
waistcoat and shirt, and the trousers, from the waist to below
the knees, were saturated with blood, as well as the skirts of
his coat. _ _

In consequence of the dangerous condition of the unfortu-
nate young gentleman, it was not deemed necessary to enter
into further evidence at present, and the prisoner was re-
manded until Monday.
The weapon with which the wound was inflicted was a
large table knife, with a sharp point, like a pig-knife. It
would appear, from an examination of the clothes worn by
Mr. Plumb, that the prisoner must have struck at him more
than once, without the knife penetrating the flesh. There
are three cuts in the shirt, corresponding in sits with the
width of the knife, and two in the waistcoat. The knife pene-
trated the back, just below the ribs, between two and three
inches.

The prisoner, who stated he should reserve what he had
to say, was taken away in custody of the police, and con-
veyed to the lock-up at Beaconsfield, a distance of upwards
of ten miles ; that being the nearest place to Eton, in the
county of Bucks, for the safe custody of prisoners under re-
mand.

The county magistrates are now in treaty with the
Great Western Railway Company, for the purchase of a piece
of ground near the Slough station, for the erection of a secure
building for the temporary detention of prisoners apprehended
in the Stoke and Eton divisions of the county. Ihe plan for
the building prepared by the county surveyor has been ap-
proved of by the bench of magistrates.