The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-26 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

Yesterday a powerful young man, named James Aggus,
described as a plasterer, was placed at the bar before Mr.
Broughton, charged with cutting and wounding Frederick
Stokes, a journeyman weaver, living in Spital-street, Spital-
fields, with intent to murder him.
It appeared from the evidence of two men, named Michael
Burke and Samuel Young, that they were passing through
Whiskin's-gardens, Twig-folly, between two and three o'clock
the preceding afternoon, when they saw a woman, whom
they afterwards found to be the wife of the prisoner, sud-
denly rush out of one of the cottages in a state of extreme
terror and excitement, and her clothes in great disorder, and
endeavour to make her escape through the garden ; but she
was quickly followed by the prisoner, who forcibly dragged
her back again, and, notwithstanding she appeared to be in
the last stage of pregnancy, continued beating her unmer-
cifully all the way. The prisoner's brutal treatment of the
woman attracted the notice of several persons who had col-
lected in front of the garden, amongst whom was the wounded
man Stokes, and who was quietly standing outside the gate,
when the prisoner, who seemed to be in a state of frantic ex-
eitement, ran back from his house and ordered them to in-
stantly move off. This order not being directly complied
with by the complainant, among others, the prisoner struck
him a violent blow in the face, and after a short encounter
between them, in which they fell down together, while
struggling upon the ground the prisoner exclaimed, " You
I'll do for you," and began fumbling in his pocket, ap-
parently for some weapon he expected to find there. He
then hastily rose, and uttering some dreadful imprecations,
ran into his house, from which he almost instantly afterwards
returned, brandishing a large table knife, with which he
sprang at the complainant, and while the latter was leaning
against the railings, exhausted by the previous struggle,
stabbed him with the knife in the side of the
head and inflicted a very serious injury. Before the
prisoner had time to repeat the blow, however, his
arms were closely pinioned by some of the by-
standers, who, after a violent struggle with him, succeeded
in wresting the knife from his grasp and gave him into cus-
tody. On reaching the police -station, the divisional surgeon
was dispatched to the injured man Stokes, whom he pro•
flounced to have received a dangerous wound, penetrating to
the skull and nearly two inches in length, and expressed his
opinion that should erysipelas supervene, which was by no
means improbable, it would be almost certain to result m
fatal consequences.
The divisional surgeon was now present, and described the
nature of the wound in almost similar terms to those above-
mentioned.
Police-constable Cobb produced the knife, which was a
larger one than ordinary, the blade of it much stained with
blood, and the point of it bent from the force of the blow in-
flicted with it.
Mr. BROUGHTON inquired whether the injured man was in
a fit condition to attend and give evidence in support of the
charge ?
Sergeant Shaw stated that the complainant had been
in attendance at the Court that morning in a state
of great pain and exhaustion, but the prisoner's wife
had engaged him in conversation, and induced him, by the
promise of a paltry pecuniary recompense, to forego the pro-
secution ; and the complainant being a person whose in-
tellect had been considerably impaired by an attack of
paralysis, it appeared that he had yielded to her impor-
tunities, for he was not then to be found.
The prisoner said that this was perfectly true, and that his
wife had actually pledged her own wedding-ring and another
to raise money enough to satisfy the complainant fur the in-
juries he had sustained, and which he (the prisoner) could
assure the magistrate would never have been inflicted if he
had not been in such a state of intoxication at the time as to
be incapable of controlling his actions.
Mr. BROUGHTON said that this was a most deliberate and
premeditated case of stabbing, and the prisoner's wife had
rendered herself liable to very serious consequences by the
cor duct she had pursued in attempting to compromise a
felony; but, though some regard should be paid to the
feelings of a wife, under such circumstances, he could not
suffer the interests of justice to be so tampered with, and he
should therefore direct a warrant to be at once issued to en-
force the attendance of the wounded man, and bind over the
witnesses to appear again on Tuesday next, when the prisoner
would be fully committed for trial.
_ SOUTH WARK.
_