The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-08 00:00:00

if Mr. Hart, the station-master, was there. We
attached five more coaches at Stourbridge. At
Hagley, the next station from Brettel-lane, we were
just starting out of the station as at Brettel-lane,
when a shackle and two side chains broke at about
12 carriages from the behind van. I there hooked
on the second shackle at that point, and we went
on again. At Droitwich I found another shackle
had broken, and the train was held together by the
two side chains. I took in some passengers at
Prince's End, expecting that there would be room
at Dudley.
The Coroner—But you were acting contrary to
the company's rules in doing so, were you not ?
Witness—Yes ; but rather than leave them be-
hind I took them in.
Coroner—Were the men. sober ?—Witness—Yes.
Coroner—Did they work the break ?
Witness—At Netherton and Round Oak ; and
I asked one of the men to take off the break.
Coroner—Was there smoking there ?
Witness—There was, sir.
Coroner—Didn't they use your break all the way
to Worcester.

Witness—No, sir, they did not. I did not com-
plain about the couplings at either of the stations.
I did not at Worcester, for Mr. Harris was with
us. In coming back the first train was composed
of 27 carriages and two break vans and one engine
till we came to Stourbridge, where a second was
put on to help us up the bank.
The Coroner—ls that usual ?

Witness—l have been piloted up before. There
were several persons in my van coming from Wor-
cester. All went well till we got to Round Oak. I
told only two persons to get into the van at Wor-
cester.

The inquest was then adjourned for a week.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.

(Before Mr. Creasy.)
John Knight, 28, cabman, was indicted for
feloniously assaulting Mary Catherine Barry, put-
ting her in bodily fear, and stealing from her person
a purse containing £1 19s. 6d. in money, a mantle,
a parasol, a pair of boots, four sleeve studs, and a
handkerchief, her property ; and in a second indict-
ment he was charged with having assaulted her
with intent to ravish, for unlawfully and in decently
tearing her clothes from her body, and for a coin,
mon assault.
Mr. Sleigh and Mr. Austin appeared for the
prosecution, instructed by the Associate Institute
for the Protection of Women ; Mr. Ribton defended
the prisoner.
Mr. Sleigh, in opening the case, said it was
one undoubtedly of a very serious nature, for if
the prisoner were really guilty of the crime imputed
to him by the prosecution he had been guilty of as
gross an outrage as could well be conceived. -It
would be his duty to place the evidence before the
jury, who, of course, would analyse it well, and if
they had any doubt about the prisoner's guilt, of,
course they would give him the benefit of it ; but
if they were satisfied that it proved the case against
him, they would perform their duty in the interests
of society by finding him guilty.
The case was then gone into at great length. On
the 27th of July, the prosecutrix, a young woman
about 23 years of age, who gave her evidence with
great propriety and decorum, and who stated that
she was a servant at Ashley's Hotel, in Henrietta-
street, Covent-garden, a situation she had been in
about 11 months, had leave to go to Islington to
see a lady named Bennett, of whom she was desir-
ous of borrowing a small sum of money with which
she wanted to provide something for a sister Hiring
in Bermondsey who had been confined. She pro-
ceeded to Islington from the Strand by one of the
" Favourite" omnibuses, and -got to Miss Bennett's
at about six o'clock, and after staying there be-
tween two and three hours, she left, and Miss
Bennett's servant went to see her to the omni-
bus, but it was a very wet night and all the
omnibuses were full. They went into a public-
house, and had six pennyworth of brandy-and-
water, for which the prosecutrix paid with a sove-
reign, one of two which Miss Bennett had lent her,
and having placed the change in her purse, she
and the servant walked on towards the cab-rank
near the Angel. They engaged a Hansom cab,
of which it was alleged the prisoner was the
driver, and he asked ls. 6d. to take the prose-
cutrix to Covent-garden or Charing-cross, but upon
the servant girl, Lucy Paynter, making some
demur, he agreed to take her for Is., and she
got in. When they had gone, as near as
she could guess, about half the distance between
Islington and Charing-cross, the cab drew up
at a publichouse, without any direction from
the prosecutrix, and the driver got off, the box and
said, as it was a very wet night he should have a
glass of ale, and asked the prosecutrix if she would
take one with him. She assented, and he brought
her a glass, the contents of which she drank off at
one draught. The man then drove on, and from
the moment the cab started she recollected nothing
that occurred, and next morning, about six o'clock,
she found herself in a wretched bed in a brothel,
No. 4, George-street, St. Giles's, the best part of
her clothes and her money gone. It appeared that
shortly after ten o'clock the night the cab was
hired the prisoner drove up to the Sussex Hotel,
Duke-street, London-bridge, and ordered two
glasses of ale, one of which -he drank himself, the
other he handed to a woman (the prosecutrix) in
the cab. From there, it would seem,
,he went to
the Gregorian Arms, near St. James's-gate, Ber-
mondsey, kept by Mr. Alfred John Wrangham ;
there was some little confusion as to the exact time,
but it was supposed to be about eleven o'clock, and
he had some conversation with Mr. Wrangham.
He said he had got a woman in his cab quite drunk,
whom he had taken up somewhere in Oxford-street
or Holborn, that she was sober when he took her
up, and she requested him to drive her to the Spa-
road station, Bermondsey, but when he got to the
Gregorian- Arms he found she was asleep and drunk.
He said, " What would you do, governor ? It's a
- bad job." or something to that effect, and Mr.
Wrangham told him that the beat thing he could
advise him to do would be to take her back to as
near as possible where he took her up, and that if
she had not then recovered herself he had better
take her to the nearest police station, and explain
the matter there. To this he remarked, " How am
I to recover my fare ?" and Mr.Wrangham told him
he would take his number, and if he found it neces-
sary to summon the woman for his fare, he would
attend on his behalf to state what he knew of the
matter. After-this the prisoner asked the ostler if
he would have a drop of gin, and he being nothing
loth a quartern was procured, and after they had
drunk a glass was handed to the woman in the cab,
who drank a portion of its contents. He treated
the ostler to more gin, and then asked him if he
would like to earn 4d. Of course, he had no objec-
tion, and asked what he wanted him to do. The
prisoner said it was to drive his cab up to London-
bridge, while he rode inside with the lady, and he
said he didn't mind if his master would give him
leave, but his master would not consent to his doing
so, and on his returning to the cab to tell him he
could not go, he found him kneeling on the cab in
front of the woman. The prisoner then got up into
the driving-box, and went off towards London-
bridge. The next that was heard of him was at
the brothel in George street, where he made his
appearance at a little before 12 o'clock, and asked
a young man named Smith, a servant in the house,
who went by the nickname of " Carrots," if he could
engage a room for a young friend of his who wanted
a lodging. Smith replied that he could, and the
prisoner, having left ls. 6d. went away. In about
an hour he returned with the prosecutrix, who was
so drunk that she could not stand, and her head was
leaning on his shoulder. He asked Smith to assist
him with her upstairs ; he did so, and, when in the
room, he a.-ked him to lend a hand in undressing her.
The prisoner turned ;her pocket inside out, and
Smith asked him to let him see what he took, as he
should be held answerable for any that might
be missed. The prisoner showed him a fourpenny
piece, a halfpenny, a German coin, a pair of gloves,
and a bunch of keys, and said she was a respectable
young woman, and he did not mind paying ss. for
her accommodation for the night, provided she was
well taken care of, as he knew her to be respectable.
Smith, according to his own statement, then said,
" Well, if she is a respectable woman, and she looks
one, this is not the proper sort of place to bring her
to;''tao of I'll see it all which the prisoner
right inr right,
she's
the morning." He then, according to Smith's
evidence, asked to be left alone for a while with
the young woman, but Smith refused, and the pi-i-
-soner said " Why, she's a stranger to me as much
as you are." " Why," said Smith, "you just told
me she was respectable and a friend of yours ;"
and the prisoner then said he had been driving
about with her all the night long, and had brought
her there for safety. Smith then told him to leave
the room, which he did, and the door was locked.
The prisoner then asked Smith to have a drop of
gin, and they went to a public-house, and spent the
fourpenny niece which he had taken from her
pocket. While Smith was taking the gin the pri-
soner left the house, and he had been absent some
little time, when Smith went back to the brothel,
and then, he said, found that during his absence
the door of the room in which the young woman
was had been broken open, and her mantle, boots,
&c., taken away. The prisoner had said he would
cal in the morning, and he did so, but the prose-
cutrix was then gone, and Smith was not up, but
they met in the evening, when they had a pot of
ale. Smith stated that on that occasion he asked

him if he had seen anything of the young woman,
when he replied that if he heard no more about it
he should keep all the money for hiniself. It was
rum jo'l, and he had got the money at home with