The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-14 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD CIRCUIT—GLOCESTER, Aug. 13.
CRIMINAL COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Keating.)
Wm. Slade Bailey, a farmer, aged 40, was charged
with a rape committed upon Emma Reeves, on the
14th June, 1861, at Berkeley.
Mr. Cripps conducted the prosecution ; Mr. J. J.
Powell and Mr. R. Sawyer defended the prisoner.
The prosecutrix in this case is a good looking
girl, 18 years of age, who entered the service of the
prisoner on the 23d May last as domestic servant,
and the charge which she now made against her
late master was, that on the 14th June following he
was alone with her in the house, and had connec-
tion with her against her will. The prosecutrix
gave her evidence with great distinctness, and from
her statement it appeared that the prisoner is a
farmer living at the village of Woodford, in the
parish of Berkeley. He is a married man, living
with his wife, and has one child. As soon as the pro-
secutrix entered prisoner's service he began to take
indecent liberties with her, and urged her to yield to
his solicitations. The prosecutrix resisted his propo-
sals, and several times threatened to tell her mis-
tress, but did not carry out her threat, as the prisoner
desisted. On the 14th June, when she had been about
three weeks in his service, the prisoner sent his wife
to Dursley, and during her absence he came to the
prosecutrix in the pantry, and there effected his
purpose, notwithstanding her resistance. She said
she screamed as loud as she could, but there was no
one within call. After he had effected his purpose
the prosecutrix told him she would go to the magis-
trates at Berkeley, and he put a sovereign down
upon the dresser, but she refused to take
it, and
told him that if he left it there she would give it to
her mistress. The prisoner then went out, and at 4
o'clock returned with Mrs. Bailey. There was a
Mrs. Brown living about 20 yards off from the
house, but she was not at home at the time. The
matter occurred on Friday, the 14th of June, and
she made no complaint to any one till Tuesday,
June the 18th, when she went to complain to the
Rev. Mr. Seton Karr, the magistrate at Berkeley.
On that morning she complained to Mrs. Bailey,
and told her what had occurred and what she in-
tended to do. Mrs. Bailey sent for her husband, the
prisoner, and asked him what he had been doing to
Emma. He said he had been doing nothing, and
that she was a lying bitch. Both Mrs. Bailey and
the prisoner than offered her money to make it up,
and Mrs, Bailey began to cry, said she could not
help her husband's faults, and tried to persuade her
not to leave, and not to say anything about it, and
promised if she would stay she would make her as one
of her own, and would take care not to leave her in
the house alone again, but would always take her
with her. The prosecutrix at length consented to
remain, and the prisoner drew up a paper, which
she signed. It was in the following words :
" Emma Reeves do agree to serve Mrs. Bailey from May
23, 1861, to October 11, at the rate of £6 10s. per year.

EMIfA REEVES.

" "Witness, Mrs. Long, her mark
" June 18, 1861.
The agreement was witnessed by Mrs. Long the
washerwoman. Directly the prosecutrix had signed
the document she went to the Rev. Mr. Karr, at
Berkeley, and there charged the prisoner with
" pulling her about in an indecent and brutish man-
ner." The prisoner followed her there and denied
the charge, and said she only wanted to extort
money. She did not charge the prisoner with rape,
because she did not know the word ; and she thought
the magistrates would understand what she meant
by " pulling lasr about in an indecent and brutish
manner." The magistrate told the parties to see if
they could settle the matter, and dismissed them
till the Friday. The girl had a glass of beer at Ber-
keley and a glass of ginger wine, and then went
back to the prisoner's house, and when she got there
Mrs. Bailey said she was intoxicated, and she did
not believe a word about the matter. She asked her
master to be allowed to leave, but he refused, and
said that if she went away he would send a police-
man after her. Upon that the prosecutrix said she
did not know what to do, and became so much ex-
cited and distressed that she attempted to destroy
herself by throwing herself into a pool of water,
from which she was taken out in a state of insensi-
bility. The next day a policeman„ Shepherd, came,
and Mrs. Bailey, in the presence of the policeman
and the prisoner, offered to give her half a sovereign
and a new dress to make it up, and not to have
any more ado. The policeman then went away,
and on the next Friday, June 21, she went to the
petty sessions at Berkeley, and, while they were
waiting for the case to come, Shepherd said
the prisoner was willing to give her a sovereign
and her wages, but she said she would not make it
up. The prisoner, in the presence of Monk, the
police-officer, and his attorney, Mr. Ball, the coro-
ner, made the same offer, but she told them she
would not make it up for any money. The case
was then gone into before the magistrates, and the
deposition of the prosecutrix taken by Mr. Gais-
ford, the magistrate's clerk. She swore, as ap•
peared by her depositions, " I struggled with him
as long as I had strength, and he threw me on the
floor of the pintry and had connection with me
against my will." Nevertheless the prisoner was
only committed for an assault with intent to com
mit a rape.
The prosecutrix was subjected to a long and rigid
cross-examination, but she answered all the ques-
tions put to her with great readiness, even when
they seemed to tell against her. She said she was
now in the service of Mr. Ponting, at Berkeley.
Monk, the policeman, had taken her to Mr. Dancy,
who was clerk to an attorney at Wotton-under-
Edge, and she stated all her case to him, as she had
not told the whole to the magistrates, but merely
answered the questions put to her. (It afterwards
appeared in evidence that Mr. Gaisford, who had
acted as clerk to the committing magistrates, had
been since acting as the prisoner's attorney, and was
now conducting the defence,) The prosecutrix was
then cross-examined as to her previous history, and
said she had been brought up by her grandmother,
but had lived in service for several years. She po-
sitively denied that she had ever allowed any man
to have illicit intercourse with her, but she admit-
ted that on one occasion she and another young
woman had been allowed by their masters to go out
with two young men, and that they came back late
at night, and were locked oat. They walked about
all night, but, as it came on to rain in the morning,
they all got, into a waggon where there was
some straw, and were discovered there in the morn-
ing by a policeman. On another occasion she was
returning from the Glocester " mop," when the
trap in which she was driven by a young man
broke down, and 'she was obliged to sleep at a
friend's house. On another occasion she walked
on the road by day as ith a young man, and at a
publichouse he was asked to pay what is called
" courting money," and did so. The prosecutrix ad-
mitted. she never complained to Mrs. Brown, the
next door neighbour, nor even to Jane Bailey, who
lived in the village of Woodford, and who had got
her the situation, and gave as a reason that she did
not want to have it noised all about the neighbour-
hood. On the evening of the occurrence she assisted
Mrs. Bailey, the prisoner's wife, but said nothing
to her of what had occurred. On the Tuesday Mr.
Seton Karr said she had better attend on the Friday,
if they could not make it up before. The prosecutrix
said that when Mrs. Bailey told her she was intoxi-
cated, and she did not believe a word she said, she
wanted to poison herself, and tried to hang herself
in her bedroom, and threw herself into the pool. She
positivelyshe had h
asdwor
onlye thatoe g
shel was not
intoxicated, that
and one of ginger
Wine, and that n
she neverass of beerknew trouble till this
case. On re-examination she went to Mr. DaneY
because the magistrate's clerk, Mr. Gaisford,. who
had taken her depositimis, was acting as attorney
formthonekp,ritsboe unesr.
parintendent of police was called
i and said he was present at the magistrate's office,
and heard Mr. Ball, the coroner, ask the prisoner if
he would settle it, and the prisoner said he would
give her a sovereign and her wages at once, and
that the prosecutrix refused to make it up for any
money. He also corroborated her evidence as to
the reason for going to Mr. Dancy.
John Taylor, a boy 19 years of age, who was in
the service of the prisoner, said he pulled the girl
who thought
was
out of the pool on the 18th of J
what Wit
washen fashre,wanad
she laughed, and said he would hears
going to Berkeley he asked
her
He
her cries might have been heard by
a.
man
mowing in a field near the house.
Mr. Powell then addressed the jury for the
of the girl's
pri-
soner, and contended that the whole
story, from beginning to end, was a tissue of im-
probabilities, and called upon them to acquit the
prisoner. The learned counsel called two or three
witnesses to character.

Mr. Justice Keating summed up the evidence
with great care and minuteness, and left it to the
jury to say, upon the evidence, whether or not the
prisoner was guilty of the charge.
The jury retired, and eventually returned into
court and found the prisoner guilty of an attempt to
commit a rape.

Mr. Justice Keating sad he should defer passing
sentence.

Catherine Oliver, 47, tailoress, was charged with
the wilful murder of her little girl, Matilda Oliver,
aged three Tears, on the 25th of May, 1861, at
Bristol.

Mr. W. H. Cooke and Mr. P. MrAfahon appeared
for the. prosecution, and Mr. J. J, Powell defended
the prisoner.

When the prisoner was called upon to plead yes-
terday morning she pleaded " guilty," and added
that she was guilty before God, and justly deserved
death, and that she had signed herself guilty.
This plea entirely took the friends of the prisoner
by surprise, as they had instructed counsel to de-