The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-24 00:00:00

Tie jury found the prisoner guilty of Manslaughter,and
Mr.. Justice WIGHTMAN sentenced him to one calen-
dar mouth's imprisonment and hard labour.
INFANTICIDE.—Sarah Hyland, aged 22, spinster, was
placed at the bar charged with the wilful murder of her
new-born child.

The prisoner was a servant in the Savoy
~Palacc
Tavern. The landlady, Mn. Gibson, suspected that the
prisoner was pregnant, which she positively denied. She
went to bed on the night of the 24th of June with *lel-
low-servant, and on the next morning, after the other
girl had got up, she delivered herself of a child and
went down stairs. Before leaving the house she told
her fellow-servant not to let her mistress look into her
box. Mrs. Gibson, overhearing this, desired the
other servant to go up stairs and look into her 13.)x.
She did so, and found a child, which was dead. A sur-
geon was called in, who found that the head of the
child was crushed, and that a petticoat was wrapped
round the body, the strings of which were tied round the
neck, either of which causes wonld be sufficient to pro-
duce death.

Mr. BALLANTYNE addressed the jury for the defendant,
and urged on the jury the probability of the child com-
ing by its death in the difficult circumstances in which
the prisoner was placed, without the prisoner having tiny
criminal intention.

Mr. Baron GURNEY summed up, and put the case
to the jury as one of concealment of birth.
The jury deliberated for a considerable time, when
they retired to consider their verdict. They were
locked up nearly eight hours, and at length they re-
turned a verdict finding the prisoner Guilty of con-
cealing the birth, and not guilty of murder.
Faith Bowerman 17, was also indicted for the
murder of her female illegitimate child, by casting it
upon the ground, and thereby, giving it divers mortal
wounds and fractures, of which it then and there died.
Mr. Simon conducted the prosecution. Mr. Char-
nock appeared for the prisoner.
In this case it appeared that the prisoner was a
country girl, and in the month of April she came to
London on a visit to her brother,- who resides in the
Belvidere-road, Lambeth. Shortly before the Ist of
July the prisoner had complained of being unwell,
and her sister-in-law went out on that day to get
some salts for her. Upon her return the sister saw
some appearances which induced her to suspect that
the prisoner had been* delivered of a child, and she
taxed her with it; but the prisoner denied that it was
the case. Shortly afterwards, however, the body of
an infant alive was found in a gateway close to the
house where the-prisoner lived, but there was no dis-
tinct evidence that she had been delivered of an infant.
At the time iheinfant.was found it had some marks
of violence upon the head and upon the body,
and the inference was that the child had been thrown
over a wall that adjoined the prisoner's brother's resi-
-denee to the'place where it 'was found. 'When the
prisoner was questioned she denied all knowledge of
the child, but appeared dreadfully weak and agitated.
Mr. Oliver Efirke, the surgeon of Lambeth parish,
who examined ihe child at the workhouse, proved
that the head was very much cont used, and the bones
of the skull were fractured. The back was also very
much bruised: The infant, notwithstanding these
injuries, was- alive when he first saw it, but it died
about two hours afterwards, and he attributed , that
event to the injury that was received upon the head.
In cross-examination the surgeon said-that the in-
jury that appeared upon the head might have been
occasioned by falling upon the stairs. He also said
that the loss
.of blood consequ'nt upon the delivery of
a child would in some cases almost occasion a state 'of
frenzy in the mind of the mother.

- .
Mr. CiIAtiNOCK addressed the jury, and contended
thst the evidence was altogether insufficient to war•
rant the jury in convicting the prisoner of the heinous
offence of which she was. accused.

Mr. Justice WIG trrmAN having summed up, the
jury found • the prisoner guilty of manslaughter.
Judgment was respited.
Amelia Alfrey, 26, was indicted for feloniously
assaulting, Mary Anne French, and casting her into
the water, with intent to drown and murder her.
Mr.•CharnOck defended the prisoner.
William Alfrey, a little boy, deposed that the pri-
soner was his sister, and he lived with her, by the
water•side, at Wandsworth. On the 29th of July he
was on Wandsworth-common, and saw the prisoner
there, accompanied by her two children, a little girl
and a boy; their names were Henry French and Mary
Anne French. The prisoner lived with a man named
French, and the children went by his name. Shortly
afterwards he heard the prisoner scream, and on going
to her be found her in a pond with her children. It
was very shallow water, and he ran in and held up
the children's heads, and also tried to hold up the pri-
soner's head. A little time -before this occurred, he
had seen the prisoner walking about, and she told him
to go home. He did not see the prisoner carry the
children into the water, but he thought they walked in.
Cross-exam'ned—There were plenty of people about
at the time the prisoner was in the water. The water
was not deeper than just above the knee.
George Steer deposed that on the evening in
qUestiOn he heard a scream, and went to the pond,
and found: the prisoner and ier two children in the
water. Witness assisted to get them out, and ascer-
tained that one .of the children was tied to the
prisoner's body with a shawl, but he could not state
whether the other was attached to her. The prisoner
was lying upon her back in the water, and appeared
in an exhausted state, and all she said was, " AMy
children !my children !" in, a low tone. The prisoner
and her children were then taken to the workhouse.
By Mr.. CHAWiOCK—In witness's opinion the
mother and her two children all screamed together.
The pond was not at this time very deep. The
prisoner appeared very much exhausted, and her
hands had changed colour. Witness had heard that
the prisoner was once confined in a lunatic asylum.
William Lee, a police-constable, said that he found
the prisoner in the state described by the last witness,
and assisted to convey her to 'the workhouse. He
produced the 'shawl taken froth the prisoner.
By Mr. Cnatt*oci-7-1-le heard the prisoner say it
was trouble that had made her do it.

Emily Alfrey,.the. prisoner's mother, deposed that
she was not married to the father of the children in
question, but they had cohabited together for six
years. He had latterly deserted her, and she had in
consequence become very ill, and was confined in a
lunatic asylum for six weeks, and when she was dis-
charged she went to live at witness's house. Before
the Ist of July witness had observed symptoms in the
prisoner's conduct of her head becoming bad again.
John Basain, an inspector of police, proved that he
received the prisoner in charge, and told her that she
was accused of attempting to murder her children and
to commit suicide, and she replied, in a faint tone,
"It is distress that drove me to do it." The witness
then produced a letter found upon the prisoner when
she was taken to the workhouse.
The mother was re-called, and she stated that the
letter. in question was written by the man French,
and in it he expressed his intention to abandon her.
(The letter was read) The witness said that after
the prisoner received this letter she observed the
ymptoms in the prisoner'sconduct that she referred to.
In cross-examination the mother said that French
had been charged with some offence, and the prisoner
had exerted herself very mach to obtain a lenient sen-
tence for him. She appeared very fond of her children.
Mr. CHARNOCK, in his address to the jury, said it
was impossible for an advocate to do so upon a more
distressing case than the present. lle then proceeded
to comment upon the facts, and said it was evident
that the cruel manner in which the unhappy prisoner
had been* deserted and abandoned by the . man for
whom she evidently felt an ardent affection, hal
unsettled her mind, and that in a paroxysm of frenzy
she committed the act imputed to her.
Mr. Baron GURNEY, in summing up, remarked
upon the distressing nature of the case, and said there
did not appear tn be the slightest ground for believ-
ing. that the prisoner entertained any malice towards
her children ; but If the jury thought that she went
into the Water with the intention of destroying them
and herself, she would, in law, be guilty of the offence
imputed to her. If they thought the facts proved, it
would then be a question whether, at the time the act
was committed, the prisoner was in such a state of'
mind as t. be accountable for her actions.

The jury, after a very short deliberation, acquitted
the prisoner on the ground of insanity, and she was
ordered to be detained during her Majesty's pleasure.
The first witness, the prisoner's brother, was then
re-called by Mr. Baron GURNEY, who told him that
the courage he had shown, and the manner he acted
at the time, did him great credit, but he regretted to
see, by the depositions, that he had not. to-day stated
all he knew.

The COMMON NEWS
-CT COURT.
T.occupied the who'.e
morning with disposing Mint eases.
Orie man, namedPe), was indicted for uttering a bad
half-sovereign at Paddington, under the following cir-
cumstances :
The priioner went to a chemist's shop, and told the
shopman to send' a black draught te._a neighbouring
it change for half a sovere'g
house, and to send with
The shopboy was accordingly sent with the black draughtln
and the change, and on his road to the house he
by the prisoner, who asked him if he bad got the wasa metg
and upon the boy, saying that he had, the prisoner gave
him half a sovereign, and told, him that he would takee
the change and the, bottle home. The boy gave them up
to the prisoner, and brought the half-sovereign home to
his master, who immediately discovered that it was a bad
one ;and updh inqUirY being made the prisoner had
never delivered the draught at all. Information was
given. to the police, and he was taken into custody, and
upon his being searched another half-sovereign was found
upon him, which Mr. Field, the Solicitor to the Mint,
stated had been cast in the same mould as the one which
was given to the prosecutor's boy.
The COMMON SERGEANT—This seems a higher order
of smashing, Mr. Field.
Mr. Field—Yes, my Lord, it is. This is the new kind
of coining—these half-sovereigns have been electrotyped.
The COMMON SERGEANT to the prisoner—Well, we
must put a stop to this electricity, and you must be im-
prisonec and kept to hard labour for twelve months.
Several other prisoners were found guilty of uttering
base coin, and
varyingw
were' sentenccd-to " various terms of im-
prisonment,from three to nine months each.