The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-19 00:00:00

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SUSPECTED- MURDER B 7.1-• -
Qts3-
On Wednesday morning a man, wit ts6itai '. h, 4 - ;
t
Richard William Woolcott, and desc paled •• • •
cabinet-maker, residing at Hoxtoi, was akiTrehefled J
the police and taken to the Islington Police-station, and
was charged on suspicion of having caused the death of
his son, Thomas George Woolcott, bydrowning him in the,
Regent's Cana/.

On Tuesday night, between eight and nine o'clock, a noy
of the name of John Pritchard was passing along the
banks of the Regent's Canal, near the Rosemary Branch
Bridge, when he saw the man in custody kneeling by
the side of the water, but what he was about he could
not tell. The boy asked him if he was drowning a dog,
and he said he was not ; his little boy was in the
water. At that moment the boy saw the hair of some
one on the water, and he saw that the person was alive,
and his fingers were moving as if attempting to swim.
Both the man in custody and the boy tried to get the body
out of the water, and whilst so engaged the man in custody
dropped some sugar out of his pocket. This he picked
up, and whilst doing so the body sank, and did not rise
again. At that time the man had a pair of slippers in his
hands, which he stated belonged to the boy in the water.
In an after conversation the man said that he had sent his
child for some sug..r more than two hours before, and that
finding he did not return home he went to look for him,
and found him on the towing-path. Whilst walking
under the 'bridge the boy fell into the water, and his
slippers fell off.

The boy, seeing Sergeant Stammers, 4 N, on the bridge,
told him whs.' he had seen, and the prisoner was after-
wards taken by him, and when the charge was read over
to him by Police-sergeant James Taylor, 33 N, he said,
" I did not cause his death." On being placed in the cell
the prisoner said, " I hope nothing serious will take place,
as I am innocent." He afterwards said, " This affair
might turn out very serious yet—l mean the affair of my
boy being drowned."
All Tuesday night the canal was dragged, but no success
attended the efforts of the police until the morning, when
the body of the child was found near the New North-road
Bridge, only a few yards from the spot pointed out by the
boy as the place where be first saw the man in custody
leaning over the water.
The body was examined by Dr. Buckle, of Upper-
street, Ddington, and he found no external marks of
violence, but as to the cause of death he could not state,
as he had not made a post-mortem examination.

THE CASE OF SCALDING AT A CONVENT.

Margaret Waist, teacher at the school held at the Con;
vent of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul,
Ashley-place, Pimlico, was re-examined at the Westminster
Police-court, on Wednesday, charged with assaulting one
Ellen Brown, a child of the tender age of four years.
It will be remembered that the case for the prosecution
is that the prisoner had taken the child and put it into the
copper of boiling water; even if it fell in accidentally she
would be guilty of a common assault for placing it in a
position whereby hurt resulted to it.

Sarah Gallagher, a girl of fifteen, employed in tno
laundry of the convent, said she was at the wringing
machine opposite the copper, and saw the prisoner bring
the child in. She took it by the legs at the knees, lifted
it up, and put its feet into the copper. She was in the act
of sitting it on the ledge of the copper, when it fell in.
Witness, in reply to Mr. Arnold, could not explain what
she meant by this ; the child was never sat on the copper.
The child did not cry at all, or scream ; it trembled very
much. Some one said the socks were wet, and the pri.
soner said, " I am afraid I have scalded the child ; I will
send for its mother.'

Honors Coppinger, a washerwoman, who waPpresent
at the time, and had to be fetched to the court to give
evidence, said she saw nothing of it until after it had
been in the water ; she took off both its stockings and one
boot, and Margaret Walsh (the prisoner) took off the
other. She, however, was contradicted by
Er;enie Moir, aged 12, who was in the bath-house, and
saw nothing of the scalding. She said she took off the
stockings nnd a boot, and Walsh took off the other boot

The father was called, and then the court was adjourned
for the attendance of the Sister of Charity who saw the
injured child first.

Sister Magdalene, sworn : I remember the day when
the child was scalded. It was on Tuesday. I remember
the fact. Prisoner asked me to come and put oil on the
child's feet as they were scalded. She said she had taken
it to punish it. I went to the schoolroom. The child was
much burned about the insteps, not quite half way to the
knees. I poured oil on the legs, and nothing more was
done. I applied lint. The mother came and took the
child away.
By the Magistrate : There were four or five teachers,
and I don't know what they said. The child was crying
and suffering, and I asked her nothing. It was a weak
cry. The skin was peeled down, as if it had been broken
down by the stocking when it came off. Margaret Wal,h
had no business to go into the wash-house. The Superior
had told her not to go there.
Remanded for a week, for the attendance of tne
surgeon.