The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-10 00:00:00

ASSIZE IA TELLIGENCE.

CHESTER CIRCUIT.—CHESTER, Aug. 9.
(Before Mr. Justice Crompton.)
Yesterday evening Peter Henry Barratt and
James Bradley were placed at the bar to take their
trial for the wilful murder of George Burgess.
Mr. Swetenham and Mr. Wood were instructed
on the part of the prosecution, and Mr. Morgan
Lloyd defended the prisoners.
The appearance of the prisoners when brought up
to plead filled everybody in court with astonish-
ment. They are only eight years of age, their heads
hardly appeared over the dock, and they seemed
quite incapable of giving a plea or knowing what
was going on. It was not until their counsel, Mr.
M. Lloyd, spoke to them that they could be made
to understand that they were to plead Not Guilty.
The facts of this most extraordinary case, almost
unparalleled in the annals of crime, appeared to be
as follows :—The prisoners were lads, up to the time
of their apprehension living in Stockport, and ut-
terly neglected and uneducated, and accustomed to
brutal sports and habits. The parents of the de-
ceased child, who was only two years and nine
months of age, were working people living at
Baguley-street, Stockport, and, as they were all
day occupied at a cotton-mill, they were in the
habit of sending the child out to nurse to one Sarah
Anne Warren. The last time the father saw his
child alive was about 10 minutes to two on
Thursday, April 11, playing with another boy on
some waste land near the Star Inn. The nurse
Warren a little later also saw the deceased play-
ing on the same spot with a little boy. There
were several other boys near. The nurse missed
the child half an hour afterwards, and ineffectually
searched and made inquiry for him. She never saw
him alive again. A little before three o'clock a
woman named Whitehead saw the two prisoners
and the deceased pass her in Love-lane, going in a
direction from the place where the father and nurse
had seen the child, towards Hempshaw•lane, near
where the body was found. That was about two-
thirds of a mile from where he was last seen play-
ing, and the place where Whitehead saw him with
the prisoners was about 300 yards from the place
where the body was afterwards discovered. White-
head asked the boys where they were going to, and
Barratt said, "We are going down Love-lane."
Barratt was pulling the deceased along by the hand.
The deceased was crying, and seemed unwilling to
go with him. Whitehead asked the prisoner if the
child was a boy or girl, and Barratt said it was a
little boy. They then went on in the direction where
the body was afterwards found. Tho prisoners were
next seen by one Emma Williams and Frank
Williams, in Ford's field, adjoining Love lane, at
about 10 minutes past 4 o'clock. At that time the
deceased was naked, and the prisoner Barratt was
dragging him into Ford's field by the hand. Frank
Williams then saw the prisoner Bradley get a stick
from the fence and hit the deceased over the leg.
They were about 100 yards off, and Emma Williams
called out to them, " What are you doing with that
child undressed ?" They made no reply, but went on
in the direction of the brook where the body was
discovered. On the following day a man named
John Buckley was working in the field adjoining
the brook, when he saw the body of a child lying in
the water, with its face downwards. The body was
naked, with clogs on the feet. He did not touch
the body, but gave information to Inspector Walker,
who went immediately and found the body lying
as above described, and its back discoloured and
bruised by blows, evidently administered while
the poor child was alive and struggling in the
hands of its brutal tormentors. The surgeon who
was examined said that, from the bruises being
ecchymosed, they must have been inflicted before
death. The nurse who dressed the child at seven
o'clock on Thursday morning proved that there
were no marks of any kind on the child's back at
that time, and also that the child was physically
incapable of undressing itself. It appeared, how-
ever, from the surgical evidence that the cause of
death was suffocation from drowning, although
there was a blow on the head which might have
a police
.officer.,.went to the house
caused concussion of the brain. On Saturday,
April 13, Morley,
with him to the
of Barratt's father, and spoke to him about the case,
and from what the prisoner Barratt then said the
Barrattnt
an d tofo
ugnod
policeman askedw
Bradley and his
house where the prisoner Bradley lived with his
parents. They
father, and then, in the presence of the risoner
Bradley's father, Morley asked Barrett whepther he
went to school ; he said, " Yes, sometimes, on Sun-
day." Morley said, " Who did, you, play with oil