The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-23 00:00:00

it was discovered that her ribs had been injured, anti
bandages were placed upon her, and she remained
in the hospital until the 12th of June, when, finding herself
very ill, aril anticipating' that else should not recover, she
insiated upon being removed to her own home, where a
tnedieel gcn,leruan of the neiglibetirliood attended upon her;
but ii eppeared that all she cemplained of to him was con-
tine:ion of the bowels, and she did not say a word about her
ribs having been injured, her object for this, in all proba-
bility, bsit'-e to screen the prisoner. She died a day or two
after she had been brought home, and a certificate was given
that the death was occasioned by inflammation of the
bowels, and she was buried under that certificate,
and the whole matter was supposed to b 3 at an
end. On the 22d of J one following, however, the
prisoner was found at Norwood by a police-constable of the
P division, in a very excited state, kneeling upon the ground
and praying to God ;.o forgive hint his sins. The constable
asked him what he had been doing, and whether he had
been robbing any one; to which he replied, " Worse than
that—l have murdered my wife." The constable at first
did not believe the statement of the prisoner; but upon
ilia tilting him to the police station the prisoner repeated
it to the sergeant on duty, and gave a narrative of all
that took place between him and his wife and step-
dauehter on the day in question. In consequence of
Oda the body of the deceased was exhumed, and upon
its being examined it was discovered that three of the
ribs of the unhappy woman were broken, and that they had
penetrated the lungs and thus occasioned death. When
the prisoner was before the magistrate he repeated the state-
ment he had made at the police-station as to the manner in
which lie had inflicted the injury upon the deceased by
striking her on:the side with the poker, taut he at the same
time said that he should not have done it if his wife had not
knocked him down with the leg of the table, and had he
not believed that she and his stepdaughter were both
going to attack him, and what he did was partly, as he
considered, in self-defence.
The prisoner, who appeared to be in great distress of mind
at what had occurred, repeated this story to the jury in
his defence.
The Common Sergeant having summed up, the jury,
after a short deliberation, found the prisoner guilty, but at
the same time strongly recommended him to mercy.
Mr. Weatherhead, the governor of Newgate, informed the
Court that the prisoner had already been two months in
custody upon the present charge.
Tire Common Sergeant said that taking this fact into con-
sideration, the sentence he should pass upon the prisoner
would be that he be further imprisoned and kept to hard
labour for the space of one calendar month.
Juntes H sley, 20, and Joseph Houghton, 18, were
indicted for a robbery upon Edwin Bretne, and the ;indict-
ment further alleged that they made use of personal violence
to the prosecutor at the time of the commission of the said
robbery.
Mr. Cooper and Mr. Prendergast prosecuted; Mr. Met-
calfe was counsel for the prisoners.
It appeared from the evidence of the prosecutor that be
was a sine- worker, living at Stoke Newington, an about
11 o'clock at night on the 28th of July he was in Shoreditch
on his way home, when the prisoners and two other men sur-
rounded him suddenly, and they all seized hold of him, lifted
him off his feet, and then drageed him about 20 yards up a
court. The prisoner Houghton t hen seized his legs, and Hisley
got his neckerchief twisted in his hand with his knuckles,
pressing on his throat so that be was not able to open
his mouth, or to cry out. He struggled as well as:he could
to get away from them, but was unable to do so, and Hisley
called out to the others, " Gouge tire —." Oae of the
men then took his watch out of his pocket, and also his
guard-chain, and also 7s. In silver ; and when this had been
done Hisley let go his hold of his throat, giving him a
violent blow on the side of his head, and he fell upon
the pavement, and all the men then ran away. He
said that he was unable to follow them, on account
of his being lame from a broken knee-cap ; but he
gave information to the policeman, who went after
the men, and shortly afterwards he prisoners were
brought back, and be recognised them immediaeely as being
two of the gang who had made the attack upon him.
The prosecutor was cross-examined by Mr. Metcalfe,
with a view to show that be was mistaken as to their
identity, but he persisted in stating positively that they
were taco of the party.
George Smith, a police-constable, deposed that he went
in pursuit of the men in consequence of what the prosecutor
told him, and he saw the two prisoners running together
down the Kingsland-road. He overto de them, and laid
hold of both the prisoners, and said that he wanted them
for an assault they had just been committing. They
made no answer, but kicked him off his feet, but he kept
hold of them and got up again, and he knocked Hisley
down, but was obliged to let Houghton go. He fell upon
Hisley to keep him down, anti sprung his rattle, and an-
other constable went in pursuit of Houghton and brought
him back. The prosecutor Identified them directly he saw
them. He was quite sober, and there were marks on his
throat, and his trousers pocket was torn down about six
inches.
Job Lewis, another constable, proved that he ran after
Houghton sod caught him, and he resisted violently and
threw himself down, and it was with great difficulty that he
succeeded in securing him.
The Common Sergeant summed up, and the jury imme-
diately returned a verdict of guilty against both prisoners.
A previous conviction for felony was then proved against
Hisley, and it was also stated that he was the constant
associate of thieves and bad characters.
The Common Sergeant sentenced Hisley to six and
Houghton to four years' penal servitude.
George Allen, 18, was charged with feloniously cutting
and wounding George Baguess, with intent to do him
grievous bodily harm.
Mr. Austin conducted the prosecution.
It appeared that the prisoner was an apprentice on board
a vessel called the Albion, and the proseeutor was mate of
the same vessel. On July 17 the prosecutor was left in
charge by the captain, and he gave the prisoner directions
to perform some duty to which he objected, and he was
subsequently very insolent to the prosecutor, who at length
struck him with his fist. The prisoner returned the
blow, and wished to have what he called a " stand
up" fight with the prosecutor, who refesed, and be
held the prisoner down upon the deck until his
passion appeared to have somewhat cooled. When
he was at length allowed to rise he still appeared to
he in a great rage, and he threatened to destroy the prose-
' cuier's clothes, and went down into the forecastle for that
purpose. The prosecutor followed in order to prevent him,
upon which the prisoner exclaimed, " -- your eyes, I'll
kill you," and rushed at him and stabbed him in the breast
with a knife, the blow evidently being aimed in the direc-
tion of the heart.
The jury found the prisoner guilty of unlawfully wound-
ing.
The Common Sergeant said that the jury had taken a very
merciful view of thee prisoner's conduct, and he might con-
sider himself very fortunate that he was not upon his trial
for a capital offence. He had been convicted of a mis-
demeanour only ' • but, under the circumstances, he felt it
his duty to pass the full sentence of the law for a crime of
this description, which was that of imprisonment and hard
labour for two years.

NEW COURT.
(Before Mr. Prendergast, Q.C.)

John Girran, 36, soldier, was indicted for assaulting
Jane Macdonald, with intent to commit a rape.
Mr. Lilley prosecuted, and Mr. Doyle defended.
The prisoner is a corporal in the Military Train; and the
prosecutrix, a girl under 13 years of age, is the dau,;itter of
an artisan in the •Woolwich dockyard. The prisoner, who
is a married wan, used to visit Macdonald's family, and
on the day upon which the outrage wascommitted was there
with his wile upon a visit. In the evening the prisoner's
wife sent the prosecutrix to fetch the prisoner from some
boric in the neighbourhood, to which he and the father of
the prosecutrix had gone, and upon their return he laid hold
of her, dt agged her into a brick-field, and would in all pro-
bability have effected his purpose, but that the child's father
came up at the time.
The prisoner, who conducted himself with much impu-
dence during the trial, kept handing to his counsel slips of
paper, upon which were written questions of a most infamous
description, to be put to the child in cross-examination. This
Mr. Doyle refused to do, merely cross-examining her upon
the facts which she had deposed to, with a view to ascertain
whether she was a witness of truth, and the childish simpli-
city of her answers fully proved that she was.
The jury found him guilty.
The Commissioner, in strong terms, commented upon the
prisoner's unmanly and disgraceful conduct, and sentenced
him to two years' imprisonment.
With two other cases of an unimportant character the
bu,iuess was brought to an end, and the next session corn •
meaces on Monday, September 20.