The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-22 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—YORK, DEC. 20.
(Before Mr. Baron Watson.)
John Taylor Whitworth, aged 22, was indicted
for the wilful murder of Sally Hare, at Throapham
St. John's, in the West Riding, on the ith of

October last.
Mr. Maule and Mr. Fullarton prosecuted ; and
Mr. Seymour defended the prisoner.
The deceased, it appeared, was a servant girl of
17 years of age, and servant to Mr. Cuthbert, a far-
mer at Tottenhall Thorpe. The prisoner was a farm
servant in the service of a gentleman named Machin,
who is a magistrate of the county of Nottingham,
and lived about six miles from where deceased was
in service. It appeared that the prisoner and de-
ceased had courted for two or three years, and that
the prisoner had removed from service in Lincoln-
shire in order to be near the deceased. On the even-
ing of Sept. 30 the prisoner called to see the deceased
at Mr. Cuthbert's. He had a cap on and a halter in
his hand, and said he had been taking a horse of
Mr. Machin's to grass. He remained with deceased
till between 8 and 9 o'clock, when she asked her
mistress's permission for him to remain till he went
to his horses. This, after some demur, was granted,
and the prisoner remained at Mr. Cuthbert's
house until between one and two o'clock in the
morning, when he left the house with the deceased.
Shortly afterwards the deceased returned with her
throat cut and screaming to the house. Mrs. Cuth-
bert got up to see what was the matter, and the de-
ceased came to her, her hands and arms cut very
badly, her throat cut and bleeding, a cut on her
jaw, and her hair down. In consequence of what
she said Mr. Cuthbert went to a place on a common
about 250 yards from his house, and there found
many traces of a struggle, a pool of blood, and a
cap and a halter, which were identified as similar
to those the prisoner had had. An open clasp
knife, bloody, was also found a few yards over a
hedge near this spot, as though thrown there.
Next morning, at half-past eleven o'clock, a man
in the service of Mr. Machin, named Clark, while
in his master's fields, saw the prisoner walk-
ing about in the fields ; he was without cap,
and appeared to be very wet and dirty. His
jacket sleeves appeared to have been washed
out and were wet ; his shirt was bloody and his
throat cut. Clark said to him, " Why, Jack,
where hast thou been ?" He replied, " I don't
know where I have been." He asked him, " What
have you been doing ?" He said, " I don't know,
Clark, what I have been doing." Witness then
said, " What do the police want you for ? Why
you have cut your throat." He said, " Yes, and
the girl's too." Witness then took hold of him and
said, " You must go along with me," and he took
him to the police-station. Some little time before,
the prisoner had asked witness if sheep salve was
a poison. Witness toldhim it was. He then wanted
to know how much would poison a person, and he
told him as much as would stand on his finger.
Witness afterwards missed a tin of sheep salve from
the out-offices where he kept it. , The prisoner had
not been sent with any horses that afternoon. On
being taken into custody a knife was taken from
the prisoner, and he said, " That is not the knife ;
she got it away from me." Mr. Wm. Latimer, a
surgeon, was called in to attend the deceased, and
he found her with a transverse punctured wound
on the throat, which had passed through the trachea
and cesophagus and had reached the vertebrae of
the neck. She had also a cut on the jaw, several
cuts on the hands and arms, and a bruise on the
temple. She died on the 7th Oct. of bronchitis
caused by the wound in the neck. She stated to
him once or twice on the first and second time he
saw her that she did not think she should get better.
He considered her in danger, but had a hope she
would recover. Sarah Turner, the nurse who at-
tended the deceased, stated that the deceased said
she should die, both before and after Mr. Latimer
dressed her wounds. Witness told her she thought
she would get better. The deceased said she thought
she would if Mr. Latimer could see in her throat as
he could see her hands. She said this many times,
that she should get better if it was not for her
throat. Mr. Latimer spoke cheeringly to her, and
she appeared cheerful after that and in better
spirits. She was easier after Mr. Latimer had
dressed the wounds.
The Hon. and Rev. W. Howard, rector of Whes-
ton, and a magistrate of the West Riding, stated
that he saw the deceased on the night of the
Ist of October, about ten o'clock. He told her
that she was in very great danger, that he came
to her as a magistrate, and not as a clergy-
man, to hear from her simply what had occurred
on the previous night. He told her that she was
likely to die. He hoped it might please Almighty
God to bring her round, but he believed she was in
very great danger, and he thought it very possible
that these injuries to her would be fatal. He was
there to hear her, and whatever she said, should
she die, would be produced in evidence on the trial
of the prisoner at York Assizes. " You must, there-
fore, tell me the truth, and nothing but the truth,
without any fear or reserve." She said nothing.
Finding that, he said to her,." It would be a very
sad and awful thing for you to go into the presence
of your Maker having told me anything in your
present situation which is false." She still said
nothing, and he was rather • embarrassed, and he
told her he should administer an oath to her, which
he did, and having sworn her, by means of questions
to her, he got her to make a statenient. She spoke
in a straightforward manner with difficulty. The
prisoner was not present. He took down what she
said, and read it over to her, and asked her if it was
perfectly true and the whole truth,and she said it was.
She then put her mark to this. (The statement she
made was here offered in evidence.)
It was objected by the prisoner's counsel that it
was not admissible as a deposition, and that it was
not admissible as a dying declaration. It was not
spontaneously made under the belief of immediate
and impending death. The evidence did not show
that this was her feeling, and the magistrate who
had attended her had appeared to be in doubt that
it was. The statements as to her condition came
from him, and not from her; and, acting under a
doubt, he had administered an oath to her.
It was contended for the prosecution that the
statement was admissible if the deceased at the
time, from her state of weakness, was sensible of her
danger. The various cases on the subject were re-
ferred to.
His Lordship said he had considered this case not
for the first time. He had heard the evidence and
the arguments, and he was of opinionthat the evi-
dence was admissible. He thought it must be taken,
on the whole, that the evidence was spontaneously
given. If she made the statement under a sense
of impending danger, then he thought the state-
ment admissible. It had been put to her very
strongly by Mr. Howard that she was in great
danger, and she was repeatedly told that she was
likely to die. She made no answer to that. If
she had had hopes of recovery one would have
thought she would have expressed them at that
time. The result of all the evidence on his mind
was that she had no hopes of recovering at that
time ; that there was not the slightest hope at that
time in her mind of recovery, looking at her state
and her expressions. He thought she was at that
time under a sense of impending danger, and that
the evidence was therefore receivable.
Mr. Seymour asked his Lordship to reserve a case
for the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeal.
His Lordship said if he should entertain any
doubts he would reserve the case. At present he
had none.
The statement of the deceased was then put in
and read. It was of considerable length, and stated
that she and the prisoner sat quietly at Mr. Cuth-
bert's till between 1 and 2 o'clock in tho morning.
When he got up to go away she walked with him
over the common. They had some words. He
accused her of going with another man, and asked
her to take poison, and he would take it too, and
they should die together. She refused. He then
made indecent proposals to her and took liberties
with her, which she resisted. He threw her down
and knelt upon her, and drew his knife from his
pocket and opened it. He then covered her mouth
with one hand, while with the other he cut her
throat on the•right side with his knife. She seized
his hand, and he cut her hands. She at last, in
struggling with him, got hold of the hair of his
head and threw him off her, and when she was en-
deavouring to get up he stamped on her head with
his feet. She then got up and ran to her master's
house. It appeared that after the deceased was
dead the prisoner asked to see her, and kissed
dead body several times, and appeared to be deeply
affected. When before the coroner the prisoner
made a statement which the prosecution declined
to put in evidence.
The learned.counsel for the prisoner then addressed
the jury for the defence, contending that it was
consistent with the facts, a part only of which they
knew from the statement of the deceased, that there
had been a struggle between them, in the course of
which the prisoner's throat was wounded by the