The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-24 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT.—LEWES, March 23.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Wightman.)
Henry Edward Mitchell Randall, 16, a good
looking lad, was indicted for feloniously inter-
marrying with one Lucy Bray, his wife Emily being
at the time and still alive.

Mr. Wyatt prosecuted; the prisoner was defended
by Mr. Roupell.
The circumstances of this charge were of a very
extraordinary character. The prisoner, it appeared,
was employed as a file•cutter at the Brighton Rail-
way Station, and he became acquainted with a
young girl, named Emily Tupper, in the course of
last year, and on the sth December they were
married at Brighton, the prisoner giving the name
of Henry Edward Mitchell Randall. Four years
before this he had been " courting" a young girl,
named Lucy Bray, who lived with her parents at
Ringmer, and it appeared that a few days after the
marriage at Brighton he went to Ringmer, and on
the 27th of December he again went through the
ceremony of marriage with Lucy Bray. It trans-
pired in. the course of the evidence that there had
been an improper intimacy between Lucy Bray and
the prisoner for a considerable time before the
marriage, and that she was in the family-way by
him, and expected to be put to bed in June next.
It also appeared that the prisoner had gone away
from Ringmer on the day the first marriage took
place, stating that he was going to London, and
having married his first wife he stopped a short
time with her, and then returned to Ringmer, when
the second marriage took place ; and four days after
the second ceremony had been performed he told
his second wife that he had been married before,
but said he did not think it was a good marriage,
because he was married in the name of Randall,
whereas his real name was Mitchell.

The jury found the prisoner guilty.
The learned judge said that, under the peculiar
circumstances of the case, he should take time to
consider what sentence ought to be pronounced.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.—March 23.

(Before Mr. Pashley, Q.C., Assistant-Judge.)
Henry Pettingall, 18, was indicted for stealing
20 muffs, 30 boas, and other articles, value £l4O,
the property of Edward Boyd Roberts, his master,
a furrier, 239, Regent-street ; and Charles Daw,
25, and Marian Oliver, were indicted for feloniously
receiving the same with a guilty knowledge.
Mr. F. H. Lewis conducted the prosecution ; Mr.
Cooper defended Oliver ; Mr. Ribton, Daw ; Pet-
tingall was not defended.
This case was very complicated, and occupied a
considerable part of the day. The robbery was com-
mitted upon the premises of the prosecutor in
August last, and in January a cabman gave infor-
mation to the police which led to the apprehension
of Daw and Oliver as the receivers of the property.
Inspector Holden and Sergeant Silverton, 239 A,
had charge of the case, and they apprehended Oli-
ver at 21, Pitt-street, Tottenham-court-road, where
she had lived with a brother of Pettingall, and they
found in her possession a large number of skeleton
keys—some of which were so covered with wax that
on being inserted in a lock they would receive the
impressions of the wards or tumblers by which an
adept could file them so as to fit the lock—files,
jemmies, and an instrument made for the purpose
of unlocking a door by being passed through the
keyhole, or a hole made in the door by a bit. They
also found in her room a boa and a muff, which
were identified as part of the stolen property. Daw
was taken at 53, Frith-street, where he was em-
ployed, and according to the cabman's evidence he
received a parcel which contained some, if not all,
of the stolen property. The evidence led to the
conclusion that the boy Pettingall, and another who
had since absconded, committed the robbery, and
The Jury, after a lengthened defence by the
learned counsel, a reply by Mr. Lewis upon evidence
as to facts which had been adduced, and the sum-
ming up, retired, and ultimately found all three
prisoners guilty.
Oliver had been convicted before.
The Assistant-Judgesaid he would consider what
seneence to pass.
Mary Ann O'Connor, 17, was indicted for having
stolen a will, a cashbox, a policy of insurance, and
£l5O in notes, gold, and silver, the property and
money of Susan Maddox, her mistress.
She pleaded Guilty.
From answers given to questions put by the Court it
appeared that the prosecutrix was a widow, and
kept the King and Queen publichouse, in High-
street, Kensington, and the prisoner had been in
her service to take care of an invalid daughter sub-
ject to fits. The cashbox was kept in a bureau in
the bar parlour; to which the prisoner had access,
and she absconded, taking with her the money
which had been placed in the cashbox. From in-
formation given the police found her on board the
Venus training ship at Woolwich, where a brother
of hers was, and about £5O of the money had been
recovered. The prisoner said there was only about
£7O in the box, and that was all she took, but
that was manifestly a lie. She obtained the situa-
tion under false representations.
The Assistant-Judge said, this was a very serious
and aggravated case of robbery by a servant, and,
after carefully considering the whole of the cir-
cumstances attending it, the Court felt it to be its
duty to sentence the prisoner to three years' penal
servitude.
A prisoner named Williams, convicted at the last
sessions, at Clerkenwell, of stealing a bag from
the London and North-Western terminus, was
brought up for judgment. He was
remanded, in
consequence of his having pertinaciously insisted
that the officer of the House of Correction, Cold-
bath-fields, was mistaken in stating that he was
known as having been in that prison, and the result
was that two former convictions were now proved
against him, and evidence adduced by the police to
show that he was a regular haunter of railway
stations, living by plundering luggage, and a mem-
ber of a gang who followed the same pursuit. He
was known by the name of Maguire.
The Assistant-Judge said, it would not only he
for the benefit of the public, but of the prisoner
himself that he should be removed for some time
from the scene of his operations. He sentenced the
prisoner to seven years' penal servitude.
John Busier and John Toomey, costermongers,
were convicted of attempting to steal a bag from a
cab, and being known offenders were sentenced
each to 18 months' hard labour.
(Before Mr. Payne.)
Mary Mordan, 37, and Thomas Mordan, 14,
mother and son, were indicted—the latter for steal-
ing and the former for feloniously receiving three
brushes, value 3s. Gd., the property of James Taylor,
the boy's employer. They were found guilty, and
the mother was sentenced to 12 months' hard labour.
Sentence on the boy was deferred.
Elizabeth Jackson and Mary Ann West, two
prostitutes, were indicted for assaulting Adam
Wagner, and, by violence, robbing him of a watch
and chain, his property. The prisoners enticed the
prosecutor into a brothel in Flower and Dean-street,
and one seized him by the hands from behind and
held him while the other forcibly took his watch
and chain. Others entered the room they were in to
aid the prisoners in escaping, and as he attempted
to prevent their getting away he received a blow on
the head from a poker, and the prisoners got out o
the window.

The jury found them guilty, and former convic-
tions were proved against them.
Mr. Payne sentenced each of them to five years'
penal servitude.

- Arnold Baumgarten, 26, was indicted for stealing
the tooth of a sea horse and a horn, the property of
Robert Lubinski. He was found guilty, and sen-
tenced to nine months' hard labour.

Mr. Langford prosecuted, Mr. J. P. Doyle was
for the prisoner.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—March 23.

MANSION-HOUSE.—The Lord Mayor. when
he police cases of the Justice-room were terminated,
spoke as follows upon the subject of his decision in
a case which came before him a few days ago :—I
do not know whether I am right in what I am about
to say, because I think a magistrate is not bound to
volunteer his defence of anything which he may do
in his judicial capacity, but in the case of Mary Do-
novan I have received a great number of letters, some
of which contain small contributions for her benefit,
and others are filled with the most violent and scur-
rilous abuse of myself. I shall take no notice of the
latter, but with respect to the contributions, I can,
if the contributors desire it, apply them as requested
to do, for her use and benefit, when she comes
out of prison ; but I think it right to say,
that if the whole of the case had been published,
there Would have been no sympathy and no contri-
butions. It is well known that the girl had been
here before, and that she and those with whom she
associates have been long in the habit of assembling
together and annoying the passengers in the streets
with the most disgusting language ; and, in fact,
she proved what a mistress of foul language she
was while she was awaiting her examination in this
hcuse. Altogether her conduct has not by any
means been such as ought to excite sympathy. She
is not so pure as she wished to appear to be. If she
had gone away from the place when the policeman
requested her to do so she would not have been
brought before me, but instead of going away she
resisted the officer and tried to excite public sym-
pathy, and she collected a crowd around her to the
great inconvenience of passers by. I know it is
quite impossible in a pollee report, condensed as it
necessarily mut bei to state all the facto of ouch a

case, and, therefore I have no fault to find with
the accuracy of tl' 3 report. lam willing to take
upon myself all tr n 3 responsibility of the case ; but
it is, I must say , something new to me, after 30
years of devotic n to the principles of justice and
humanity, and c anxious zeal to rescue such girls
as Mary Donova n from a life of misery and vice, to
be accused of all s orts of crimes against justice, and
even, I may say, c ommon humanity ; and if it had
not been for the ,30; ntributions I should have thought
it altogether unnecessary to offer any remarks
whatever upo n tb.e case. If after this it be still the
desire of those' rho have sent their contributions
that those cm ttril nitions should be applied to the
use of Mary Tor man, I will place the money in
' the hands of of le of the most humane clergymen in
the city to do eN7 erything with it for her service ;
but I must again say that in my opinion the case
is not one which e Yught to excite public sympathy.
Some years ago this girl was placed in the
King Edward's. f. school of Industry and Refuge
for Girls in S,oi talfields, and extraordinary re-
sults were antic; l sated from her evident natural
abilities, but afttt:. ' two years of training for a
pupil teacher, wit b. the view of opening up to her
a respectable and useful mode of support, the
authorities of the el ;tablishment were compelled to
dismiss her for her lisorderly conduct, and since
that time she has bee n living in Flower-and-Dean-
street, Spitalfields, a . locality chosen rather by per-
sons of most irregul, air habits ; in fact, by thieves
and prostitutes, than b y those who live by honest
industry. However, as I said before, if, after this
statement, those who hare sent their contributions
still wish their contributions to be applied to the
use of Mary Donovan when sATie comes out of prison,
I will see that they shall be so applied, and I have
already written to Mr. Cohen, the chaplain at
Holloway-goal, requesting that he would ascertain
if there be any cha nee of doing her any real and
permanent service, but I must add that the contri-
butions usually sent to this court are for the benefit
of the deserving pour and not for the criminal.
This girl has been in prison before. She had been
long under the notice of the police, and was the
ringleader of a gang of girls who have been long
complained of by the inhabitants of the district in
which she was apprehended for their habit of col-
lecting round the Royal Exchange and the Fen-
church-street railway station for the purpose of
importuning gentlemen for money, and it was well
known if their importunities we re unsuccessful the
vilest abuse followed ; and there is strong reason to
suspect that the combs and of her articles which
these girls carry and ostensibly offer for sale are
carried, not for sale, but to ena Lyle them to effect
other objects. Among the letters ,sent to me with
small contributions I have had. .communications
forwarded by several papers. Those sums I shall
apply with the others, if the donors still desire it,
and I wish to say that, however harshly some
of the papers have acted towards me, I shall
not be prevented from endeavouring in the
most earnest manner to rescue this girl from
a life of vice. I must add that on the very
day she was brought before me, and imme-
diately after the case was ended, tlt gentleman
came forward to complain of her conduct, but
said that he did not dare to make the complaint in
open court, because he was convinced that if he
made the complaint his windows would. have been
broken next morning by her companions. I have
only to add to these observations that I shall re-
quest that the press will acknowledge my receipt
of all sums I have received for Mary Donovan.

COUNTRY MARKBTS.