The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-27 00:00:00

ALLEGED CONSPIRACY.

About six weeks since a builder, named John
Starkey, was committed from Lambeth-street
police-office, to abide his trial at the Old Bailey,
on a charge of having violated the person of a
llrs. Catherine Glascock, and having used a
brutal violence in accomplishing his purpose.
The complainant, a young and fashionably-
dressed female, during the several examinations,
acted her part so well, and gave her evidence
with such apparent simplicity and hesitation, as
to excite a great degree of sympathy in her
favour, and a correspondent feeling of disgust at
the conduct of the prisoner. He was committed
for trial, and was to have answered for the alleged
violation at the last commission. The prose-
cutrix, and the witnesses to sustain the indict-
ment, though they had entered into heavy re-
cognizances to prosecute, did not make their ap-
pearance, nor did they even go before the Grand
Jury to prefer a bill of indictment, for the find-
ing of which their evidence was necessary.
The prisoner, Starkey, was, at the close of the
Sessions, of course discharged, no prosecutor
appearing against him. On Friday last he waited
on the Sitting Magistrates at Lambeth-street
police-office, Messrs. WYATT and WALKER,
to take their advice as to how he was to proceed
in order to punish the parties who were engaged
in the vile conspiracy, as he knew it to be, which
was got up against him, In making the appli-
cation, he said it was not so much to avenge
himself, as to rectify him in the opinion of nu-
merous friends, who had been much hurt, and
their minds kept in a state of agitation from the
extent and perfidy of the iniquitous crime laid
to his charge. He had another reason also for
his application, and it was to remove the uneasi-
ness felt by his family on hearing an accusation
of such a nature, and which he was prepared to
prove satisfactorily was most foul and unfounded,
preferred against him. The result proved it so.
The prosecutrix could not come forward, and he,
on the oath of a common prostitute, had been
incarcerated as a felon.

Mr. WYATT observed, that though his case
might be a hard one, yet he did not see bow
they could aid him. As for giving advice, they
could not give any, and if the applicant felt him-
self aggrieved, his best course would be to apply
to a solicitor.

Starkey said, that there was a gentleman pre-
sent who could give their Worships some idea
of what the character of the female was.
Mr. WYATT—I am aware of the circum-
stance you allude to, and it was most fortunate
for you that such a discovery had been made.
That this woman is a common strumpet there
can be no doubt, but it does not legally come
within our province to interfere.
The circumstance alluded to is this :—The
gentleman, it appeared, happened to be present
during Starkey's examinations, and saw and mi-
nutely observed the appearance of the prosecu-
trix. In three or four nights after Starkey's
committal, he met her in Fleet-street, when she
solicited him to accompany her to four different
brothels off that thoroughfare, in all of which
she said she was known. He walked with her
some distance, and in reply to his questions she
admitted that she had been on the town over
two years, and made several other acknowledg-
ments which were of vital importance to Starkey.
Mr. WALKER told the applicant that they
could not assist him ; his best plan was to apply
to a solicitor.

Starkey—l have, Sir, applied at Mr. Har-
mer's office, and was there told, that unless I had
1001. to expend, I could not expect any redress.
This sum I cannot spare ; and it is a hard case
that persons who have so seriously injured me
should escape unpunished.
The applicant, after thanking their Worships
for the attention they had paid to his applica-
tion, withdrew.

SHOCKING CRUELTY OF A MOTHER,

The neighbourhood of Lombard-street was in
a state of great excitation on Wednesday morn-
' ing, in consequence of a report that a woman
living in a cellar in that street had almost
murdered one of her children by beating it upon
the head and other parts of the body with a pair
of tongs. This report roused the feelings of
every mother in the street, and numbers flocked
to the spot; but the unnatural mother had fled,
and left the poor child in the cellar, bleeding
frightfully from the wounds it had received. The
police were immediately informed of the un-
natural deed, and immediate search was made
after her, but for some time without effect ; and
at last she was found in a house of doubtful fame
near Campfield, and taken to the New Bailey,
and on Thursday was brought up for examination.
From what we have been able to learn, it ap-
pears that for years she has been a most aban-
doned character. Her eldest daughter is about
eighteen years of age, and she states that up to
thirteen years of age she was sent out to beg, or
sell matches ; and since that age she has been
on the town,—and both mother and daughter
seemed to have arrived at such a pitch of depra-
vity, that their guilty practices were carried on in
company in a manner which decency forbids us
to mention. The mother had recently asso-
ciated with a man who, about three weeks ago,
left her, and since then her conduct has, if pos-
sible been worse than before. She had three
other children—one aged eight years, one six,
and the other, a mere infant, between two and
three years old. These poor creatures she sent
out regu;arly to beg, and if they returned home
without money or provisions, they were sure to
be cruelly beaten by their unnatural mother ;
so that when unsuccessfid, the little wretches
dared not come home ; and one morning at
three o'clock, all three were found asleep on a
gentleman's steps in Hulme I On Wednes-
day morning last the watchman of the district
was attracted by the cries of a child in a neces-
sary near Mr. Hewitt's, Lower Mosley-street,
and on looking into it he found the three chil-
dren, one of them moaning piteously, and two
of them fast asleep. He awakened them, and
inquired where they lived, and took them home,
when he found the mother and daughter, as we
have been informed, both beastly drunk in bed.
He then left the children and returned to his
duty. In a short time after, the daughter got
up and went out for a short time, and on her re-
turn to the cellar, she found the eldest child
bleeding profusely, and the mother endeavouring
to strip off the bloody shift it had on. She
asked her mother if she was going to murder the
child, when the mother cursed her and threatened
to serve her in the same manner if she did not
hold her tongue. The child ran screaming out
of the cellar into a neighbour's house, followed
by its mother with a bowl of water, where she
washed the child's head, took off its shift, and
put it to bed. She then left home, and was not
seen again till the police-officers took her as be-
fore stated. The child says that soon after its
eldest sister left the cellar, its mother began to

beat it with the tongs, about the head ; and, to
sate its head from the blows, it held up its little
hands, one of which is considerably injured.
The children have been placed in the work-
house.

As Mr. Oilier, in the examination before the
Magistrates, deposed that the child who suffered
so cruelly under the hands of its unnatural pa-
rent, was not out of danger, the woman was
committed to prison.
Mr. Forster said that this was one of the most
detestable cases of cruelty that had ever come
before him, and he would take care that the in-
human wretch should not escape punishment.—
Manchester Times.