The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-29 00:00:00

♦PPOINTMENT.

WooLwICU, JULY 28.—Acting Assistant-Snrgeon—
William A. Turner (1851), to the Styx steam-sloop, at
Devonport.
Gunner Henry Davidson is confirmed to the Water-
witch, 8, sloop, at Chatham, making ready for the West
Indies station.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
NORFOLK ClRCUlT.—Norwich, July 28.

CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice CRiSSWELL.)

Henry Groom, aged 42, was arraigned on an indict-
ment charging him with the wilful murder of John
Ayton on the 4th of the present month, at Holkhatn,
by shooting him through the head with a bullet and shot
discharged from a pistol.
The prisoner is a labourer on the Holkham estate,
and the deceased was the superintendent of the brick-
fields, in virtue of which office it was his constant prac-
tice to pay the labourers their wages fortnightly on Fri-
days. For this purpose he used to obtain the necessary
funds at Lord Leicester's office, and being advanced in
years, he had latterly resorted to a donkey and cart as a
means of conveyance from the office in the park, his road
lying through the west lodge and past a plantation and
an old sand-pit. Oa the day named in the indictment,
Mr. Ayton obtained, at his usual hour of twelve, or there-
abouts, the sum of 25/. ss. 6d., which was paid to him in
sovereigns, and half-sovereigns, and a 5/. note of Gurney's
bank, which, having been cut in two, had been pasted
together again at the back, and presented some endorse-
ment in red ink. No further notice was taken of this note
at the time of payment by the clerk. Between twelve and
one Ayton was seen to pass through the park in his don-
key-cart towards the west lodge, and after that hour he
was not seen alive by anyone, unless it was by the prisoner,
who was seen loitering about the entrance to the sand-
pit plantation on that day by two people, between twelve
and a quarter-past one. At half-past one a shot was
heard by some workmen hoeing mangold wurzel in a
field near the plantation. About two o'clock a young
lad wandering about the neighbourhood chanced to
enter the plantation, where he saw a man lying on his
side, as he thought, asleep, with his hat on the top of
his head. The boy took no notice of him ; but, pass-
ing through the plantation, entered the mangold wurzel
field, and told the men there what he had seen. They
did not pay any attention to the circumstance. At halt.-
past one a man named Yarham saw Ayton's donkey and
cart straying Along the road between the entrance to the
said pit plantation and the brickfield, and tied them up
at a gate near the pit. The same man findiug the don-
key and cart at the same place, and having heard from
the boy that he had seen a man asleep in the pit, he
leaned over the brink, and at the bottom he found the
owner of the donkey and cart lying dead,,with the
contents worked out" by a large wound at the back of
his head, over which was placed his hat. The alarm was
immediately given, and the pockets of the deceased man
having evidently been rifled, suspicion tell on the prisoner,
who had been seen going home to his father-in•law's
house, at Wells, by a circuitous route ; he was on that
evening taken into custody, when a 51. note of Gurney's
bank, corresponding in appearance with that so recently
given to Ay ton, was found in his pocket, and a key. The
latter being applied to a drawer in the room occupied
by the prisoner, opened it, and within the drawer were
found a quantity of sovereigns, half-sovereigns, and sil-
ver, which together with the 51. note, made up the sum
of 26/. 2s. 6d. The coin so found in the drawer was
wrapped in a piece of paper, which, on being examined,
proved to be a portion of an account in Ayton's hand-
writing, and fitted exactly with another piece of paper
discovered in the pocket of the murdered man, in which
was the rest of the same account. It further appeared
that a horse-pistol, which the father-in-law of the pri-
soner had placed on a shelf after using it on the morning
of the 4th to scare birds, was missed at nine o'clock,
after the prisoner had been seen to quit the house with
a canvas bag under his arm, and soon after the pri-
soner's return home the same pistol was seen again in
its proper place. The prisoner, who was not defended
by counsel, did not attempt to deny that he was in the
neighbourhood of the plantation, as deposed by the
witnesses for the prosecution, but accounted for the pos-
session of the money by saying that he had found it in
the road, and insisted that no one had ever seen him kill
the man.
At the close of the ease for the prosecution,
Mr. Justice CRESS WELL submitted the whole facts to
the jury, who, without any hesitation, returned a verdict
of Guilty.
His LORDSHIP then proceeded to pass the awful sen-
tence of death in the usual form.
The prisoner, who used a trumpet during the whole
of the trial, as he was quite deaf, was then withdrawn
from the dock.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
WORSHIP-STREET.
A middle-aged man, named John Rogers, described as
an omnibus-driver, was placed at the bar before Mr.
Arnold, charged with having caused the death of a
woman named Elizabeth Leafs, aged thirty-six years,
with whom he bad cohabited.
Mrs. Jane Holman, the wife of a bootmaker in Luke-
street, Finsbury, said—The prisoner had occupied the
first-floor room in my house with the deceased, who
lived with him as his wife, since the Saturday before Eas-
ter last. About a quarter bz,fore 12 on Saturday night I
was disturb,:d by an angry altercation between them,
which was shortly succeeded by the sounds of a blow and
heavy fall, which completely shook the place. I instantly
hastened up stairs to their apartment, on entering which
I found the deceased lying on the floor, bleeding pro-
fusely from the nose and mouth. The only words she
uttered were, " Oh, pray oh, pray !" On questioning
the prisoner, who was very much intoxicated, as to
what be had dove to the woman, he replied, in an agi-
tated manner, " I have struck her and knocked her
down. For God's sake do all you can for her."
I immediately raised her head, and requested the
prisoner to support it for fear she should be suffocated,
which he readily did. Having admitted another
luonddgeerr, ,
theirnamed
care, Cooper,and
aatn
thed his wife, I left the deceased
urgent
desire of the pri-
soner hurried off to procure the attendance of Mr.
Leonard, a surgeon in the neighbourhood. On return-
ing with the latter, the deceased was still lying upon the
Moor in strong convulsions. After examining her condi-