The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 24, 1851

SINGULAR CASE OF INFANTICIDE AT

WAKEFIELD.

At an early hour on Monday morning last, the in-
habitants of Wakefield were greatly excited by the
report that a child had been found, with its throat cut
from ear to ear, at the station of the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway Company. The rumour unfor-
tunately proved too true ; and in the course of the
day an inquest on the body was held at the Royal
Osk Inn, before Mr. Thomas Lee, coroner, when
the following particulars transpired :
Shortly after five o'clock on Monday morn-
ing, one of the company's porters named 11. Jack-
son, went to the station as usual, for the purpose of
seeing the Government train dispatched, which leaves
Wakefield at half-past fire. There was another rail-
way servant also on the premises, a young man be-
longing to the telegraph-office, named Mahalana
Park, who booked four persons to go by the train,
namely, two males and two females. Imme-
diately on the departure of the train, the porter
Jackson went into the passage where the book-
leg-office is situate, for the purpose of taking out a
ladder, intending to extinguish the gas lights.
Having discharged this duty, and been absent only
about five minutes, on his return he found in the
passage a common blue hat-box, corded in rather
a clumsy manner, lying on the ground. On taking
it into the telegraphic office, and thinking there was
something strange in the weight and appearance of
the box, the two servants decided upon opening it,
when, to their horror and surprise, they found it con-
tained a male child, with its throat cut in a shocking
manner, and quite dead. From the medical testi-
mony of Mr. Francis Horsfall, surgeon, it would ap-
pear that the child could only have been born
a few hours before its life was destroyed. As
to the parties implicated in the prepetration of
this diabolical deed, a curious chain of circum-
stantial evidence has already been developed. It
appears that, about ten minutes after the de-
parture of the train for Manchester, a man and a
woman came to the booking-office window, and in-
quired if the train had gone to Thornhill. On learn-
ing that it had gone, and that there was no other train
until half-past eleven o'clock, they departed, and within
a few minutes afterwards the hat-box was disco-
vered, containing the murdered infant. A railway
officer, while going up Kirkgate to the police-office,
saw a female standing at the end of a yard, who,
on catching sight of him, speedily decamped ; but
she was subsequently taken into custody in company
with a man who is supposed to have been with her at
the railway station. The telegraphic clerk, Park,
positively swears to the woman being the person who
came to the window to make inquiries respecting the
trains to Thornhill. The two prisoners are known to
have been associated together for a long time, and
were met in the streets at various points during Sun-
day night and Monday morning ; and, from the con-
fused and unsatisfactory account they give of their
movements and business, strong suspicions are enter-
tained of their implication in this mysterious transac-
tion. The medical gentleman has examined the
female prisoner, and gives it as his opinion that she is
not herself the mother of the child. The jury re-
turned a verdict of " Wilful murder against some
person or persons unknown."
On Monday afternoon, the two prisoners, whose
names are Ann Smith and James Doyle, were brought
before the magistrates at the Court-house, and on
the request of Mr. MtDonald, the chief constable,
they were remanded for a week for further examine-
tiun.—Manchester Guardian.