The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-03 00:00:00

CROWN COURT.

Mr. Baron GURNEY took his seat on the Bench, and after
he had addressed the Grand Jury,
The Officer of the Court stated to his Lordship that a witness
who was about to go before the Grand Jury refused to be sworn.
Baron GURNEY ordered him to get into the witness-box, and
he then asked him why he refused to be sworn?
The witness, who wore a smock-frock, and had the appear-
ance of a countryman, made no answer, and although the ques-
tion was repeated three times, he still refused to reply to it.
Baron GURNEY ordered him to be committed, and he was
accordingly taken into custody.
Soon afterwards, the COURT was inf firmed that another wit •
ness, a woman named Elizabeth Kimpton, also refused to take
the necessary oaths.
Baron GURNEY, addressing the prisoner, told her that she
was required by the law to appear and give her evidence. He
wished to know, therefore, why she refused to be sworn ? Wit-
ness—lt is said in Scripture that we are not to swear, either by
the Heaven above, or by the earth beneath.
Baron GURNEY—That means you are not to swear idly, but
it does not require you to refuse to be sworn in a Cour tof Jus-
tice. Witness—l will not take any oath at all.
Baron GURNEY—Do you believe in any particular religious
sect that is exempted by law from takin*, an oath? Witness
—I worship God in spirit and in truth. r belong to the Church
of England.
Baron GURNEY—I call upon you to take the ()Ali. Witness
—I will not.

Baron GURNEY—Then you stand committed.
Jiibez Rainbow, alias Kirk, aged 18, a soldier, was capitally
indicted for cutting and wounding. Jane Pearse with intent to
murder her. In two other counts the prisoner's intent was
laid to maim and disfigure the prosecutrix, or to do her some
griev us bodily harm.
Mr. Lydekker conducted the prosecution, Mr. C. Jones de-.
fended the prisoner.
It appeared in evidence that the prisoner, who is a native of
Coventry, had enlisted into the 34th Regiment of Foot, and
had been stationed at St. Alban's as part. of a recruiting com-
pany, and he there formed a connexion with the prosecutrix,
who was a female of loose character, and they cohabited t ge-
ther for several months. On the night of Sunday, the 3e of
Oct., the prisoner and the l'rjsecutrix, apparently on good
terms with each other, went to the Boot public-house at St.
Alban's, where they enga'ged a bed, and in the morning, about
ten o'clock, the prisoner called for some ginger-beer and porter,
and he and the prosecutrix drank it. The latter soon afterwards
fell asleep. It a very short time the prisoner was heard to call
out " Murder, murder, come to me, call for the police, and
give me into custody ;" and upon the landlord going into the
room, he found the prosecutrix lying insensible on the bed,
with her throat cut, and the prisoner standing in the middle of
the room without his clothes, and covered with blood. On his
being questioned, he said, " I did it ; I cut her throat," and
then quietly resigned himself to the custody of the policeman
who had been called in. From the evidence of the girl
Pearse,` it appeared that she was awoke by feeling
a sensation of suffocation, and, on putting her hand
up to her throat, according to her own statement, "it
sank into it ;" and she then saw the prisoner with a
razor, in the act of cutting her throat. She struggled with
him until she became insensible, and this was all she could say
upon the subject. The surgeon proved that the wound on the
throat was six inches long, and half an inch deep • it severed
the windpipe and the muscles of the neck. He also said that
there were fourteen other cuts upon different parts of the per-
son of the prosecutrix ; and one of them, which severed the
tendons of the right hand, was not yet cured. The most ex-
traordinary part of the story was that there appeared an entire
absence ot motive on the part of the prisoner for the desperate
act he had committed, the girl herself admitting that up to
that time he had always been very kind to her ; and that on
the day the affair took place, there had nut been the slightest
quarrel between them.
Mr. C. JONES addressed the Jury, and urged them strongly
to release the prisoner from the capital part of the charge,
contending that the offence must have been committed by him
while lan was labouring under a paroxysm of temporary madness.
The Jury found the prisoner guilty upon the third count,
and Mr. Baron Gurney ordered him to be transported for
fifteen years.
•
William Morgan, 59, was capitally indicted for cutting and
wounding John l'arks, with intent to murder him.
,eait
and
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altercation between them, the prisoner drew a carving-knife
froM the breast ot his coat and male several stabs with it at
the prosecutor, and one of the thrusts wounded him in the arm,
but not severely. It transpired in the course of the evidence
that the prisoner, at a former period of his life, had been con-
fined in a lunatic asylum, arid he had recently conducted him-
self in such an extraordinary mariner on several occasions, that
there was every reason to believe that he was nut of sane mind.
The Jury, therefore, acquitted hint on the ground of his
being insane at. the time he committed the offence, and he was
ordered to be detained in safe custody until her Majesty's plea-
sure respecting him should be made known.

CIVIL SIDE,

Baron AmmtsoN sat at nisi Arius. Thee arc eleven CMS
for trial ; two of which arc special juries. One of them, the
Queen v. Webster, is fixed for this morning. Ills Lordship
disposed of several common jury cases during the day, but none
of them contained any feature of public interest.