The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-03 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT.—CHELMSFORD, DEC. 2.
(Before Mr. Justice Wightman.)
Alfred Corder, 25, who pleaded guilty to an in-
dictment charging him with feloniously setting fire
to a quantity of farm buildings and other property
with intent to injure Thomas Hills Wood, and also
to defraud the Sun Fire-office, was brought up for
jui 'sent.
T e prosecutor in this case is an extensive farmer
at White Notley, in the neighbourhood of Brain-
tree, and it appeared that the prisoner was an entire
stranger to him, and there appeared to be an utter
absence of motive for the commission of so serious
an offence. The fire in question took place in the
night of the 19th Sept., and property to the amount
of £4OO was totally destroyed. The moment the
prisoner was taken into custody he admitted his
guilt.

Mr. Justice Wightman, in passing sentence, said
it was difficult to understand what could have in-
duced the prisoner to commit so serious an offence,
but, as a warning to others, he felt it to be his duty
to order him to be kept in penal servitude for 15
years.
tHenry Abbott, 31, who pleaded " Guilty," and
Jas. Marsh, 35, were charged with a similar offence.
Mr. Woollett conducted the prosecution.
The prisoners, who appeared to be in a very dent i-
tute condition, went to the police-station at Witham,
and asked for some relief; and finding that the super-
intendent was not there, and could not obtain what
they required, it appeared that they at once pro-
ceeded to the farm-yard of Mr. Crump, a farmer at
Witham, and deliberately set fire to a stack of
wheat, valued at £l2O, the whole of which was
consumed. The prisoners were both taken into
custody upon the spot, and the evidence clearly
established their guilt.
They were sentenced to undergo penal servitude
for 10 years.
Christopher Ketteridge, 23, and Charles Barker,
32, were indicted for burgariously breaking into the
dwelling-house of Samuel Richardson, and stealing
a watch and other articles • and the indictment also
charged the prisoners with assaulting and using
personal violence to the prosecutor at the time of
the commission of the robbery.
Mr. Woollett prosecuted; Mr. Taylor defended
the prisoners.
The circumstances of the case were of rather a
singular character. It appeared that the prosecutor
was a labouring man, living in the neighbourhood
of Saffron Waldon, and that on the 12th September
he had been to the harvest spending, where he no
doubt enjoyed himself to a considerable extent, and
returned home about 1 o'clock in the morning.
According to his evidence, upon his entering his
cottage he saw the prisoner Barker standing in the
lower part of the house, and the other man, Ket-
teridge—both of whom he was well acquainted with
—standing on the top of the staircase ; and he said
they both attacked him and beat him with a stick,
and robbed him of his watch and other property.
The prisoners, it appeared, were readily found after
the transaction, and they denied all knowledge of
the robbery, and declared that they were not near
the prosecutor's house when it took place.
Mr. Tayler, in his address to the jury for the de-
fence, declared that, according to his instructions,
the prosecutor was in such a state of intoxication at
the time the supposed robbery took place as not to
know what he was about, and that he was under a
complete delusion or description of nightmare, and
that nothing of what he represented actually took
place. He called as a witness a man named Gar-
wood, who lived in a cottage adjoining that of the
prosecutor, and he stated that on the night in ques-
tion he heard him come home at a late hour, and
for a very considerable time he appeared to be reel-
ing and falling about like a drunken man, and at
length he made such a disturbance that he was in-
duced to get up and see what was the matter. He
knocked at the cottage door of the prosecutor,
and for some time he could not obtain any answer,
and when he did come aconsiderable period elapsed
before he could find the key, and nearly as long
before he could place it in the keyhole and open
the door. Upon his going in he found the prosecu-
tor nearly naked and dreadfully intoxicated. All
the furniture was in confusion, and the prosecutor
had placed chests and other articles upon his bed,
while he himself was walking about naked, Upon
his telling him to dress himself, the prosecutor put
on his breeches the hind part before without ap-
pearing to know the mistake he had made, and in