Star.
London, England, 1808-05-10 00:00:00

IVIIITE V. STEVENS.

The Plaintiff keeps the Canteen at Hampton Court,
and the Defendant is a distiller at Kingston. In De-
tcember last, the person who kept the Canteen had an
execution in his house, and on hearing of this the '
Plaintiff offered to lend him £3O or £4O to pay it out,
when the Defendant interfered, and observed, "where
could you get that money to lend ?" He then collared
him, and went for the guard, who took the Plaintiff
into custody, and he was kept in the guard-house more
than two hours. These facts being supported by the
testimony of three witnesses, the Jury found a verdict
for the Plaintiff—Damages RIO.

A poor boy, named John Knight, having been
bound out as an apprentice from the house of indus-
tiy at Melton, in Suffolk, on the 9th of January last,
his master's head man, named John Haselden, took
him, while very ill and unable to work, naked out of
his bed, put him into a hog-cistern, and unmercifully
beat kim with a horsewhip and the root of a tree, and
afterwards kicked him. For this brutal assault Hasel-
den was tried at the late Woodbridge Quarter Ses-
sions, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment. The
wretch pleaded guilty to prevent the evidence from
being given ; but the Magistrates heard the whole
case, in order to fix the punishment.

Moanaes.—Wednesday morning, at two o'clock, at Drayton,
Dorset, a horrid murder was committed on the bodies of Mr. and
Mrs. Sledger, of Thaw Farm, two miles from Drayton. Throe
robbers broke into the house and alarmed the family, and the,far-
nter and his wife were bound together in bed. There was only a
maid servant, of the name of Sarah Cullum, in the house, and she
fled at the alarm, at four o'clock in the morning. Two hours
after the servant had escaped, she procured assistance ; when the
poor old man and woman were found dead, and manglud in a
shocking manner. their ages amounted to 120 years, they were
unable to make resistance, and the house had been completely
plundered. One of the villains worked on the farm, according to
the Information of the servant, and he has decamped: •
A few days since George Tapp, alias Godheard, was commit-
ted
to the Devon county gaol, for the wilful murder of Robed,
Leach. It appears, that the prisoner and the deceased (the former
a t:dior, the latter a butcher), were both inhabitants of the parish
of Morchard-bishop, about thirteen miles from Exeter, and lived
on terms of the greatest intimacy. On Sunday, the 44th of April,
they were seen at a public house in tke village, and were observed
to quit it together; after which time Leach was missing. Various
inquiries were made respecting him ; but on the Friday following,
his friends being alarmed at his continued absence, investigated
mote diligently the events which preceded his sudden departure,
when a strong suspicion fell on Tapp, from his having been the
Last person in whose company he was noticed, and from his being
observed to have more money than usual : added to which, infor-
mation was given to a neighbour, that on the Saturday preceding
the Beth of April, Tapp was observed, very late at night, digging
a pit in his garden ; and, on being questioned, at the time, his reap
son for workisg there at so late an hotir? he replied, it was merely
fot the purpose of burying some dung to make a cucumber bed.
On these grounds search was made in the garden, when, shock-
ing to relate, the mangled body of !.each was found, thrown into
the very pit 'which appears to have been previously designed for
its reception. Tapp was immediately apprehended, and, when in
custody, voluntarily confessed his crime, which he stated to have
committed in the following manner :—That they walked together
from the public house to that of the prisoner, and, on going into
the garden, Leash complained of a pain in his head, and sat him-
self down on a fallen tree; that while he was in the act of tying
a handkerchief round his head, Tapp came behind him and struck
him a violent blow with an old axe, which be fitted up for the
purpose, repeating his blows till he had finished the bloody deed ;
that after taking from the pockets of the deceased cash and bills
to the amount of about 601. he threw the body into the pit he had
prepared for it that he afterwards burnt the handle of the axe
and put the iron part into a running stream to wash off the blood.
He also burnt his hat, and cut off the marks of blood from the
tree with a hook. On being asked how long he premeditated the
murder ? he replied, about a week. It does not appear that there"
had been any quarrel whatever between the parties ; on the con-
trary, the greatest intimacy existed between them. There had
been some money transactions, in which the prisoner was consi-
derably Indebted to the decea.sed., These, added to a knowledge
of his having property about him, are supposed to have instigated
him to the commission of this atrocious murder. Tapp 's mother 1
has since been committed as an accomplice.