The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-03 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
11 0 11E CI RC 171 T.—Kingston, April 2.
CROWN SlDE.—(Before Mr. Justice Alar Liz.)
Thomas Denny, 32, was indicted for the wilful
murder of a certain unbaptised male child, by stabbing
it in the throat with an awl.
A woman named Eliza Tarrant was originally in-
cluded in the charge, but the grand jury ignored the
bill against her.
Mr. Looks conducted the prosecution, on behalf of
the perish authorities of Ewell. The prisoner was
defended by Mr. Clerk.
The Learned Counsel for the prosecution having
opened the case in a calm and temperate address, the
following evidence was adduced :
Anne Danford stated that she was a widow, and
re4ded at E On the. 16th of August last, in
consequence of some communication that was made
to her, she went, accompanied by Sarah Trigg and
another person, to a loft over a yard belonging to a
person named Moore, at Ewell. She there saw a
woman named Eliz i Tarrant, lying apparently in a
helpless state, with a newly-born babe by her side.
She observed that the child bled from the nose and
mouth, and none of the usual precautions in such cases
had h=en talcon with respect to it. The prisoner was
also in the loft, hut at witness's suggestion he went
away. She was in attendance upon Eliza Tarrant
about an hour, and witness's daughter then took
the child to her house. The child was carried down
the ladder leading from the loft by one of the
women, and not by the prisoner. Witness shortly
after wards washed the baby, and then observed a
wound in the neck, and she also saw that it was
bruised upon the body. After she had done what she
considered necessary to the child she took it back to
its mother, and it died about an hour afterwards.
The prisoner then went away and made a coffin, and
he said it must be buried. Witness told him it would
be necessary to have the death registered, and he made
some answer which she did not hear. Mr. Lane, the
surgeon, afterwards came to the loft, and she showed
him the body of the infant.
Cross•examined—The prisoner fetched her to see
Eliza Tarrant. She was lying upon straw in the loft,
and the child's throat appeared to have been scratched
by the litter that was lying about. She stated this
at the time. The prisoner went with her to a gentle-
man's house in the neighbourhood to get some linen
for Eliza Tarrant. She remembered saying to the
prisoner that she did not think the poor thing would
live, and he replied " It will be a happy thing, for it
can never go better than now, with no sins to answer
for."

James Denny, a son of the prisoner, was then placed
in the witness-box to be examined. He stated that he
was eight years old.
Mr. Justice Matadi put some questions to him
with a view to ascertain whether he could properly
be examined upon oath. Hs stated that he could say
his ABC, but he did not go to school. He appeared
to be an intelligent child for his years, and the
Learned Judge eventually decided that the oath
should ha administered to him, and that his evidence
should be taken.

He was accordingly examined—He said the pri-
soner is my father. Eliza Tarrant used to live with
my father. We all lived together in the hayloft at
Ewell. I recollect Eliza 'Tarrant having a baby. I
went to my father when it happened, and told him to
come home directly as mother was very ill, and he
did so. When we got back I saw Eliza Tarrant
lying in the loft, with a baby by her. My father
took up the baby in his arms. He then took up an
awl.—(here the poor child became much affected and
cried bitterly, and it was some time before he could
proceed with his testimony. At length he went on.)
—My father took up the awl and killed the baby
with it. He stuck th awl into the baby's throat.
The baby cried when he stuck it with the awl. My
father then took the chili to Eliza Tarrant, and asked
her if he should make a coffin for it. Before he said
this, he asked her if she would help to kill it, and
gave her the awl. She did try to kill it also. My
father gave her the child end the awl, and she did the
same that he had done. I was very much frightened
at what I saw and ran away, and when I came back
found Eliza Tarrant in bed.
Cross-examined—While my father has been in
custody I have been in the union workhouse. I could
not say my alphabet when I was first taken to the
workhouse. I can say the Lord's Prayer—(ile did
so at the request of Mr. Clerk). My mother taught
me the Lord's Prayer. My father made the coffin
the dAy after he killed the b thy. I did not tell this
story until after I had been in the workhouse. lam
sure Eliza Tarrant did something with the awl to
the baby's throat.
Re-examined—l have been at a workhouse in
Suffolk, a long way from Ewell. I have never talked
about this affair since I have been in Suffolk. Mrs.
Trigg was not present when my father used the awl.
Eliza Tarrant, the woman referred to, was then
called as a witness. She appeared to be very weak
and ill, and it was found necessary to allow her to
be seated while she was giving her testimony. She
deposed as follows :--I am a single woman, but for
the laMt two years I have been living with the pri-
soner as his wife. He was in the service of Mr.
Moore, farmer, in August last, and we occupied one
of his lofts. I was delivered of a child in that
month. Before I was delivered I had bought
a piece of cotton print to make clothes for the
baby, and the prisoner tore it and threatened me,
and made use of very bad language, and said
that I should not have the stuff to make up for the
baby. This was about a month before the child was
born. I had bought the print with money of my
own which I had saved. The child was born on the
10th of August. On the morning of that day I had
taken the prisoner his breakfast, and when I returned
l'ecl3llltr t•. 7 - - - I was delivered.
No one was present at the time but we
son, and I sent him to fetch his father, and they both
returned together. When the prisoner came into the
loft I was lying upon some hay with the child, anal
he came and took up the child and carried it to the
other end of the loft, and I saw him hurt it. There
were severals awls in the loft, and the prisoner took
up one and stuck it into the child's throat. I was
lying down at the time. I saw the awl again the
same day. Very soon after this Mrs. Trigg and Mrs.
Danford came into the loft, and the child was taken
away.

Cross-examined—Prisoner had been a shoemaker,
and he used to mend his own shoes. He used to
make drills and other agricultural machines, and fre-
quently mended the straps belonging to them. Before
we went to Mr. Moore's we had been living at
different public-houses for two or three months. It
was on a Sunday that I was at work upon the print,
and the prisoner told me that Mr. Moore was a strict
religious man, and that he should get into trouble
if i continued at it. This was the reason why
he was angry. The prisoner came to the loft in a
very few minutes after I had sent for him. His back
was turned to me whan he went away with the child.
I was charged with this offence myself. and I made a
statement to the policem to who took me into custody.
This was not my first child. I had another three or
four years ago when I was in the Ilarthey-row
Union, Hampshire. I did not know the prisoner at
that time. That chili died of water on the brain.
About a week ago I expected to be tried on this
charge I.,yself.
The prisoner's son was then re-called, and, in
answer tc fuller questions that were put to him, he
said that when his lather stuck the child with the awl
he wa standing close by the window, and so was his
fathinr ; and he said that both his father and Eliza
Tarrant knew that h. was in the lof% He was not
hid id any way, and they must have both seen him.
He did not say anything when he saw his father stick
the baby with the awl.
gsrali Trigg deposed that she was a widow, and
resided at Ewell. On the 16th of August she met
the prisoner near Mr. Moore's premises, about four
o'clock in the afternoon, and he asked her to go
with him to the loft, and she did so. She there saw
Ebel Tarrant lying upon some hay, with a child in
her lap, and she observed a small quantity of blood
upon its nose and lip, and it cried very hoarsely, as
though it had a bad cold. She had never heard a
child cry in the same manner before. It made a sort
of peculiar noise in its throat. The next morning,
when she again went to the loft, she found the child
was dead. _

Cress-examined—Witness had said to Mrs. Dun-
ford that she did not observe any mark on the throat,
and if there had been any one she must have seen it.
Mary Buckland, the daughter of the witness Dun-
ford, deposed to having taken the baby to her house
wraPPed in a shawl. She saw blood flowing from its
nose and mouth, and noticed that it made a very cu-
rious noise in its throat. She also said that she ob-
served a mark on the neck of the child, which at the
time she thought was a scratch from the hay or straw
in which it had been lying. She likewise, stated that
when the prisoner was told to go to the clerk to see
about burying the child, he replied, " It will be about
a shilling. I. can make
the coffin myself."
Cross- examined--ver—
y little blood appeared to
have flowed from the wound in the neck of the child.
Sergeant Kennedy, of the V division of police, said
thst he was present at the inquest upon the body of
the child, and he heard the prisoner made a statement
to the coroner's jury. He said that he went to the
loft, where he had been living with Eliza Tarrant, on
the 16th of August, when he was sent for, and he
was in the act of putting on his jacket when a quan-
tity of powder fell from the pocket, and on replacing
it he pricked his finger with an awl which was in the
pocket. He said that after this had happened Eliza
Tarrant told him to bring a shawl to wrap the child
in, and he did so, and placed the child by the side of
its mother on the hay, and then went out to the
neighbours to get assistance.

In answer to a question put by Mr. CLERK, the
witness said that the loft was 24 or 25 feet long.
Williams, another police-constable, deposed that
the prisoner told him that he had never been in the
loft but on the day before his wife's confinement.