The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-06 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE,

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—Am. 4.
CROWN COURT.
Mr. Justice Williams took 'nis seat at 9 o'clock
this morning, and Francis,
-13 rice was placed at the
bar charged with the
au' murder of Sarah Platt,
at Birmingham, or. the 18th of April.
Mr. Spooner conducted the prosecution, and Mr.
O'Brien a,piseared for the prisoner.
The facts of the case were substantially these :
The, prisoner was a shoemaker, and had been work-
ing at his trade in Birmingham some four or five
months. He had very soon after his arrival become
acquainted with the deceased, whom he courted,
and who, until within a short period before her
death, had teen attached to him. Some differences
arose between them previously to the 16th of April,
partly from there having been reports which came
to the ears of the prisoner, respecting a woman
with whom the deceased associated, and whose ac-
quaintance the prisoner was anxious she should
discontinue. At seven in the morning of the 16th
he went to the Swan-with-two-Necks, in Birming-
ham, where the deceased had been living as servant
some ;months, and in the presence of her fellow-
servant, Ellen Cain, endeavoured to persuade her to
make up her difference with him. This she refused
to do.. He asked her what harm he had done ; she
said, no more than the tales that went about. He
said if she would make it up it should be so no
more. They shook hands at his request, and he
endeavoured to draw her towards him, and in so
doing pulled off her thimble, which he offered
again, but she refused to receive it, and he left it on
a ledge in the bar. She and Cain withdrew into the
sitting-room, bidding the prisoner " good morning,"
and he went away bidding " good morning" to
her. The differences between them were not, how-
ever, quite settled, and on the 18th of April Henry
Evans, a police-constable of Birmingham, who had
known the prisoner three or four months, met him
in Alceston-street, and while walking with him
the 'prisoner said he ;wished he could see Sarah,
meaning the deceased, and that he would give any-
body ss. who would fetch her. They were then
near to the house of Agnes Hone, an old woman,
living in a court in a part of Birmingham called
Derrited, and the policeman seeing her suggested
that she would go on his errand for 55.; the police-
man then went away, and the prisoner instructed
Agnes Hone to go to the Swan-with-two-Necks
and tell the deceased that her sister wanted
to see her. He then, by Hone's permission, went
into her house. She delivered the message to
the deceased, who followed her back to where the
prisoner was. Upon opening the door and seeing
him she exclaimed, " Oh, it's you, is it ?" and went
in, while the woman Hone, having shut the door,
took up a bucket and went towards a brewhouse in
the yard. She had scarcely got as far as to a bake-
house, which was only some two yards from her
door, midway between it and the brewhouse, where
a man named Powell was making break, before she
heard the cry of a little dog which she had left in
the house, and which sounded as if it were in pain
or terror, She ran and opened the door, and there
saw the deceased young woman lying across on the
floor bleeding, and evidently dead, as her arm fell
powerless as the door moved. The witness cried
out " Murder! For God's sake don't murder her."
The prisoner pushed open the door, ran by her, and
rushed out of the yard. Hone gave the alarm,
which was instantly caught by John Powell, who
stepped across the yard and looked into the house,
when he saw the deceased lying bleeding on the
floor, he pursied the prisoner and overtook him
after running about 200 yards. He turned and.
faced Powell, saying " What do you follow me
for ?" Witmss replied, " I suppose you know as
well as I do." The prisoner again started, and had
run 100 yards further when he again turned and
faced the witless, saying, " What do you follow
me for ? I've done nothing." Powell in return
asked, " Why do you run away, then ? you may as
well give youzself up, for you're bound to be taken."
He again started off and ran some 50 yards into
Bradford-street, and when the witness got round a
corner he saw the prisoner facing him. Calling to
one Francis Sbkes to assist him, the two collared
the prisoner, who said, " I've only gave her a
smack on the nose." Powell said " I hope it's no
worse, but I'm afraid it is ; you must come and go
back with me and see." The prisoner refused to
go back, and desired to be taken to the station,
whither he was accordingly led. While on his way
thither he said, Well, she should not listen to tales,
and then it would not have happened ;" and then he
added, " I'm as bad as her, I've listened to tales.
Well, what's dcne can't be undone ; I loved her as
I loved my life." Hobbes, an inspector of police,
who was at the police-station when Powell and
Stokes brought the prisoner in custody, inquired of
Powell what the matter was. Powell said that he

could not tell what it was, but that a woman was
lying down covered with blood. A surgeon was
sent to the place, and in the meanwhile the prisoner
was ordered into custody. Mr. Jordan, the sur-
geon, returned, and reported the woman's death in
the prisoner's presence. Hobbes thereupon asked
the prisoner whether he was aware that the young
woman was dead. He said, "Is she dead ? It is
Mrs. -- and Mrs. —, and them women, that
are the cause of it. I shall not tell you a lie about
it. I loved her as I loved my life. I know my
fate;
my days are numbered." There was blood
upon his right hand. John Parnell, a police-con-
stable, who had on the same morning seen and had
been talking with the prisoner, so lost his self-pos-
session upon receiving him into custody so shortly
afterwards upon a charge of murder, that he asked
him if it was true that he had committed this mur-
der that had been talked of. He said, " I have, I've
cut her throat." Parnell said,
" Oh dear if it's a
penknife, or a paltry knife, perhaps she won't die."
He said, "No, it's a large shoemaker's knife ; I only
edged it yesterday morning." He desired to know
when the sergeant came back whether she was dead,
and. being informed that she wag,
exclaimed, "The
Lord have mercy on her, and I should say have
mercy on me too; but I'm told that the Lord will
not have mercy on a murderer. God help those
that have caused mete do it ; I blame nobody for it
but Mrs. T. I loved her as I loved my life.
I should
not care if I was hung to-morrow." Mr. Ross
Jordan, surgeon, found the deceased lying
.on
her back upon the ground, recently dead, and beside
her head a great quantity of blood. Across her
throat from left to right was a large wound dividing
the large veins, the trachea, and half severing the
carotid artery; it was a wound which would cause
immediate death, and by her neck lay a shoemaker's
knife, which, 'encrusted with rust, was produced in
inquest
held John Burt Davis, coroner, at the
held on the body of Sarah Pratt at the prisoner s
own request, after having given him the usual
solemn caution, administered the oath to him as a
witness. He then said that he wished to retract
what he had said of Mrs. J-- and
Mrs.
and he proceeded to ascribe the origin of his act to
another woman; spoke of the circumstances of his
quarrel with the deceased ; of her returning
him the
portrait of himself which she had received in ex-
change for her's ; of the manner in which he had
been sneered at by persons whom he named for pre-
senting some Banbury cakes and a pairlof boots to
the deceased, and also respecting the.return of his
portrait ; of tales that had interfered with her affec-
tion for him ; and of an intimation made to him by
Evans, the policeman,
that he should persuade the
deceased, whom he said he had offered to marry
whenever she was willing, to leave the house. where
she was in service. When he met her Hone's
house on the 18th he had asked her, he said, to take
back his portrait, and to make it up with him.
This she had refused. lie offered her whatever he
had, and said it was hers. She answered that she
knew that, but it was not that she eared about—
"it was the tales." He concluded that statement
by desiring that 355. remaining of the money that
had been taken from him might be given to the
deceased's mother, though it was, he said, a poor
recompense. Portraits of himself and the deceased
were found in his possession, and of these, as he
subsequently stated, photograh copies had been
in
made for sale, and largely sold Birmingham.
Mr. O'Brien, in the commencement of his address