The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-13 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

Yesterday a middle-aged man, of very respectable ap-
pearance and good address, who gave the somewhat
doubtful name of John Tontkins, was placed at the bar
before Mr. Broughton, charged with indecently assault-
ing a child only five years of age, named Eliza Quin, in
a second-class carriage of the Eastern Counties Railway
Company.
The mother of the child, who said that her husband
was a gas-fitter in Lincoln's Inn-fields, stated, that hav-
ing been with her child on a visit to her father at Bille-
ricay, in Essex, she was returning to town on the pre-
ceding day, and took a place in a second. class carriage
at the Brentwood station of the above railway. While
entering the vehicle the prisoner, who was also a pas-
senger, proffered his services in assisting her to dispose
of several packages she had with her, and conducted
himself in a somewhat obtrusive manner. The train
had started only a short time when she observed the
prisoner paying very particular attentions to the child,
which she had been obliged to place on the seat opposite
to her, and on which the prisoner was seated, in conse-
quence of the crowded state of that where she herself
sat. After fondling the child in a paternal manner for
some time, the prisoner lifted her off' the seat of the
carriage and placed her in his lap ; the child appeared
to be very comfortable, and witness's observations being
directed to the scenery, she thought no more about it
for some considerable time after, when a lady passenger,
who had been watching the prisoner's movements, called
her attention to his conduct towards the little girl, and
on looking at him, witness saw that his hand was up the
child's clothes. The little creature was then very much
agitated and frightened, and before the witness had time
to do so, one of the other passengers indignantly snatched
the child from off the prisoner's lap. The train went on
to the next station, but when it arrived there witness ac-
quainted the guard of the treatment the little girl had
received from the prisoner, and he advised her to give
him into custody, which she accordingly did the instant
the train reached the Shoreditch terminus.
Mr. Augustus Rackham and his wife, who were
fellow-passengers with the last witness, corroborated her
evidence in every particular ; and in addition the first
witness added, that the prisoner was originally seated
on the same seat as the child's mother, but that as soon
as the child had been transferred to the opposite scat,
the prisoner crossed the carriage, and placed himself be-
side it. When the little girl was taken away from him,
the prisoner appeared to be very much confused, but
said nothing.
Mr. BROUGHTON asked the prisoner if he had any ob-
jection to state what profession or business he was en-
gaged in?
The prisoner replied, that he was a clerk in a mer-
cantile establishment, but he must respectfully beg leave
to decline being more specific.
Being then called upon for his defence, the prisoner
entered into a long and generally irrevelant statement,
the only pertinent portion of which was, that he felt
himself bound to pay every attention to the mother of
the child, on seeing her unprotected situation, and that
on the little girl being placed beside him, he certainly
took her upon his knee ; but he would submit to the
Magistrate whether it was at all likely that a person
holding so respectable a station in society as he did
would be so mad as to forfeit his character and position
by being guilty of such a scandalous outrage towards a
mere infant, and that, too, in the presence of such a
number of people as were in the carriage at the time
in question, the vehicle being, in fact, completely
crowded ?
Mr. BROUGHTON said, that after a patient attention to
the evidence which had been offered, he was sorry to say
that he could come to no other conclusion upon it, but
that an assault of a most aggravated nature had been
committed by the prisoner upon the child ; but, consi-
dering also the public nature of it, he did not conceive
that it could be taken to amount to a criminal assault.
He, however, felt it his duty, under the circumstances,
and for the protection of the public, to call upon the
prisoner to put in bail to answer the charge at the ses-
sions, and the bail must be, the prisoner himself in 40/,
and two responsible sureties in 201. each.
The prisoner, who appeared to be much agitated, was
then removed.