The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-24 00:00:00

45 47
18 19

ICOMMIT7,4 T, OF A QV 4 riK DOCTOR
AND TWO FEMALE ACCOMPLICES.

George Francis Hooker, 48, described as a her-
balist, Henrietta House, 29, and Mary Holloway,
45, married women, were brought up for final exa
mination, before the Southampton magistrates, on
Saturday afternoon, charged with feloniously usinc,
a certain instrument on the person of Annie Wood-
ward, with intent to procure abortion.
The justices present were Mr. P. Breton, Mr. J.
Bernard, and Mr. Fall.
Mr. F. Leigh, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the
prisoners.
Mr. C. P. Keele, surgeon to the Southampton
Gaol, said that on Friday afternoon, the 14th inst.,
he was called to see Annie Woodward, at the prison.
She was suffering from a profuse discharge of blood.
On the following morning he made a careful exa-
mination, and found traces of internal injuries
(which he described). superficial abrasions and
ulcerations, such as would be likely to be produced
by the attempts of an ignorant person to produce
abortion by mechanical means. If the attempt had
been made by a person acquainted with anatomy
no serious injury would have been inflicted.
Annie Woodward, a good-looking, respectably-
dressed young woman, 21 years of age, who had
also been apprehended, but whose evidence was
now received against the prisoners, then deposed
as follows :—I am the wife of Edward George
Woodward, and was married to him in the begin-
ning of October last. Tn November I found myself
in the family way, and I think I had been so about
five months or more. I saw Mrs. House, whom I had
known for three years, one day in November. I
met a person who told me that Mrs. House had been
very ill, and I called on her. I told her I was mar-
ried. She said she had heard so, and was very glad
of it. I told her I was in the family way, and I
was so before I was married, but that she must not
tell any one, as she was the first person I had told
of it. She said, " Why do you not take something
to get rid of it ?" The witness then entered into a
long narrative, the substance of which was that Mrs.
House had first persuaded her to visit Hooker's,
where the first operation with an instrument took
place, and that on subsequent occasions the other
female prisoners accompanied them, and was pre-
sent at the operations ; that afterwards they had
persuaded her to take medicine sent by Hooker,
and which made her ill, and that at last abortion
occurred.

Corroborative evidence was given. Mrs. Wood-
ward informed the police on learning the circum-
stances that had occurred, and police-sergeant Ralfe
took charge of the case. Mrs. Woodward asserted
that House had told her, when she thought Mrs.
Hooker was equally to blame, that she was not, as
she had left Hooker once before because he had de-
stroyed so many children.
Police-sergeant Harris apprehended Hooker, and
told him the serious charge. His reply was that
he did operate upon females for obstructions,
and for what followed he could not be answerable.
At the police-station he was searched, and, among
other articles, two letters were found in his pos-
session. (These letters were from other females
who had resorted to him, and each of them im-
plored him to come immediately, as she was in an
agony of pain.) Harris subsequently apprehended
the other prisoners.
Mr. Leigh declined to cross examine the wit-
nesses, and reserved the defence of the prisoners.
The magistrates committed all three prisoners
for trial at the next March assizes at Winchester,
and refused to accept bail.
The prisoners were conveyed back to Southamp-
ton Borough Gaol, where they will remain until
their trial, and Mrs. Woodward was restored to
her husband.