The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-14 00:00:00


NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—YoRK, March 11.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Byles.)
George Plant, aged 32, was charged with the
wilful murder of William Wilson, of Sheffield, on
the 26th of January last.
Mr. Blanshard and the Hon. F. S. Wortley pro-
secuted, and Mr. C. Foster defended the prisoner.
The prisoner in this case, it appeared, is a
brewer's traveller in the employ of Messrs. Bradley
and Son, of the Soho Brewery, Sheffield, and living
in Towncross-lane in that town. The deceased was
a brass-fitter, and on the night of the 26th of Ja-
nuary he went to the Red Lion public-house, in the
Hartshead, Sheffield, at about 12 o'clock. There he
asked the landlord if there was anything to do at
the pumps. He was told that two required clean-
ing. He did his work and got some drink, and
afterwards left at about one o'clock. When he left
it was evident that he had had some liquor, but this
generally made him good-natured and desirous of
shaking hands with persons with whom he came in
contact. Nothing was seen of him from the time
he left the public-house until a little after
one o'clock, when a man named George Norton, who
was in company with another named Hawksworth,
were passing down the market place, and heard
some quarrelling between two men at the bottom of
the Hartshead. They crossed the road to the two
men, when Norton asked the prisoner, who was one
of the men, if he had been stopped. The prisoner
replied that he had, and the deceased, who was the
other person, then ran off the footpath into the
road, and said he had taken the prisoner for a friend
of his—a cabman. The plaintiff then said he could
have taken the stick from Plant's right hand, upon
which the prisoner replied that in return he would
have given him the knife. The deceased then took
hold of the stick as if to show how he could have
taken it from him, upon which the prisoner put his
hand back, which contained a dagger, and gave the
deceased what appeared to be a slight stab. On
being stabbed, the deceased reeled a little and fell
down. He afterwards got up, walked to the kerb-
stone and sat down. Norton then advised the pri-
soner not to leave the deceased, and he and his
friend then left. They had not, however, got more
than 15 paces from the spot where these circum-
stances had taken place, before the prisoner passed
them, when, as he was doing so, Norton noticed
Plant put a dagger into his pocket. Norton and
Hawksworth proceeded up Watson's-walk, while
the prisoner went down Angel-street. The deceased
remained sitting on the causeway edge until he at-
tracted the attention of two men who were passing,
and who, on finding his condition, carried him out of
the rain, which was pouring down at the time,
under the cover of the post-office passage, which is
just opposite. The deceased was eventually taken
down to the Town-hall, and attended to by Mr.
Booth, surgeon, who, on examination, found upon
his body a small wound, which appeared as though
it might have been made by a knife or dagger.
The deceased's bowels were protruding from the
wound to the'size of a man's hat. The bowels were
replaced, but inflammation shortly set in, and the
man died. The learned counsel, in opening the
case to the jury for the prosecution, stated that
every homicide was a murder, and that it lay
with the party accused to reduce the offence by
evidence to the less crime of manslaughter.
To constitute a murder, malice, expressed or im-
plied, must be shown. As against the deceased the
prisoner probably had no particular malice ; but he
should show that he had recklessly conducted him-
self with the dagger, and had shown it to the peo-
ple and brandished it about in such a manner as to
indicate general malice to all who came in his way,
and it was contended that if death resulted from
his act while so conducting himself, it was murder.
The prisoner had drawn out his dagger to a
policeman shortly before he was with the deceased,
and asked him if he wanted his number. The
policemen replied " Oh no, sir," and walked on.
Very shortly after this he accosted a woman in the
street, and said he was not afraid of any one insult-
ing him, drawing out and exhibiting his dagger-
knife at the same time. These facts showed areck-
lessness in dealing with such a weapon with which
his subsequent conduct to the deceased was in keep-
ing, and if the wounds on the deceased were so in-
flicted it was murder.

These facts having been proved, it was elicited
on cross-examination that the deceased when drunk
would run up and shake hands with every stranger,
and force himself on those who did mot want his
company; that when taken into custody the pri-
soner had concealed nothing, but had at once ad-
mitted that he had a dagger-knife at home, where
it was found, and then stated that he had got into
a conflict with a man who had stopped him as he
was going home past midnight on the night in
question ; that he had purchased the knife for his
protection, having frequently to go home late with
large sums of money upon him, which he had col-
lected in the outskirts of Sheffield as traveller for
Messrs. Bradley and Son, who had a great business
as brewers, and that he had bought the knife be •
cause he had been alarmed at the numerous garotte
robberies which had taken place in the neighbour-
hood of Sheffield. It was elicited that this was
not a foolish fancy, or fear, as there had been many
such robberies.

The prisoner's statement before the magistrates
was then rcad, and was as follows :—" My name
is George Plant, formerly of Doncaster. Late
last Wednesday night I was going home, and when
I had got down High-street, against Richard's,
the draper, I met a man named Wilson, coming
rushing out of a passage. He took hold of me, and
without saying a word, knocked me down. I kept
him off while I was down with a small stick I had
in my hand. When I got up again, I said, What
have you done that for ? If you don't be quiet I
will give you:something ? ' He replied, ' I'll let you
see what I have done it for.' During that conver-
sation the two gentlemen, Norton and Hawksworth,
who have given evidence, came up. I said to them,
" You see this man has attacked me.' While I was
saying so, he ran round at me again, and tried again
to get hold of me. In doing so he made a rush at
me, and fell upon the knife which I held before me.
He screamed out' Police, and I replied, ' I will stay
until the policeman comes. I stood up in my de-
fence ; it was your own fault.' I then said to the
two witnesses,' I have only stood in my defence, as
you see ; I will stop until the police come, and go
with him.' They walked away, and I, thinking it
was no use staying by myself, went direct home. I
communicated to my wife what had happened. I
had next morning to go to Manchester on business,
and did not hear anything of the occurrence until
I
saw an account of it on Friday morning in the
Manchester Guardian. I returned from the jour-
ney at half-past eight o'clock on Saturday evening.
My wife told me themIaan was dead. I had been
in Mr. Bradley's service
dagger the day before
carried it with
on the Barnsley-road.
me for
protection,entered .
0 fortnight.n having
I service, boughte
no
andnthe
ee
stopped . b Mondaybought
ht
themorn-
ing I went to my work as usual
knife for protection, as I have to travel in country
places for money."
Mr. Foster then addressed the jury for the de-
fence. lie adopted the definition of the learned
counsel for the Prosecution of the crime of murder,