The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-11 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

On Monday a young man named William Beak, described
as a professional singer, was placed at the bar before Mr.
Broughton, charged with having forcibe administered a
certain white powder, supposed to be poison, to a little girl
only eleven years of age, named Jane Eastman, the daughter
of an undertaker in Somerset-place, East-road, Hoxton.
The complainant, a pretty and intelligent child, who gave
her evidence with remarkable clearness and fluency, stated,
that while passing down Peerless-row, City-road, at a quarter
past eight o'clock on Friday evening she was accosted by the
prisoner, of whom she had some slight previous knowledge,
and who, saying that he was going to see his brother, asked
her to accompany hint a short distance, promising, if she
did so, to give her a mince pie. After walking a few yards
in his company, she told hint that she had been sent on a
message by her mother, and that she could not proceed any
fnrther, upon which the prisoner threw his arm round her
/neck, and partly carried and partly dragged her nearly half
the length of the street. She struggled violently to extricate
herself, aad the prisoner at length set her down. but had no
sooner done so than h e seized her by the throat, and compressing
it violently with his fingers, compelled her to open her mouth,
when he instantly pulled from his pocket a small packet con-
taining some white powder, which he forced into her mouth,
and the greater portion of which she involuntarily swallowed,
on seeing which the prisoner took to his heels and escaped.
During the whole of the time she was being forced along and
the powder was being thrust into her mouth, she screamed
loudly for assistance, and her cries ultimately attracted the
notice of a lady who was passing, and who kindly assisted her
to the house of her parents. The witness added, that the mo-
ment she had swallowed the,powder she felt a burning sensa-
tion in her throat and stomach, from which she endured the
most excruciating pain, and that since then she had been con-
fined at home under the care-of a surgeon.
In:cross-examination by Mr. Heritage, who attended for
the prisoner, the witness positively persisted in her identifica-
tion of the latter as the man who bad assailed her in the
manner described, and stated that she had seen him only on
two previous occasions, the first of which was ox her calling
at a shop he kept about ten months before for some sweet-
meats, and the second five months since, when he called with
his wife to look at some apartments to be let in the house of
her parents.
The mother of the complainant: stated, that about nine
o'clock on the evening in question her daughter returned
home in a state of great alarm and agitation, and observing
that her eyes and face were much swollen and her throat
discoloured, she questioned her as to what had happened,
when she immediately communicated to her the particulars
she had already given
in evidence, and described her as-
sailant as the man who had called some time before to look
at the vacant rooms. The child appeared to be in agonizing
pain, and complained. that her inside was swollen and
scorched, on which the witness took her to the house of
Mr. 'Young, a surgeon in the East-road, who at ',once pro-
nounced it as his opinion that she was suffering front the
effects of poison, and administered two powerful emetics at
short intervals to remove the contents of the stomach,
which now remained in his possession) The surgeon directed
the child to be instantly taken home and placed in bed,
which having been done, she continued in a state of partial
delirium and acute suffering the whole of the night, and had
not yet entirely recovered from the effects of the treatment
she had received.

Mr. Arthur Hayes, assistant to Mr. Young, proved that
on the complainant being brought to his employer's house
she manifested all the appearances a person labouring under
the effects of an active poison would exhibit, and that Mr.
auk:, who had since subjected a portion of the contents of
tho stonwh to chemical agents, had detected the existence
:tt.ii..olll:l:rtido phoaivsoenmofore
the analysis. potimweerfaulllodwes:drihpitmiont,o beuntatbhlaet
hhiemwtaos
elitA';GuGirrox said that it was very essential for the
cjustice that the chemical examination should be per-
formed with extreme care, and, as Mr. Young's other profes-
sional enL-tagetnents might disable him from paying that at-
tention to the Analysation that was imperative, the rejected
-house on Saturday
been forwarded to !Ile station s mu. ‘t 1.;!A carefully preserved, and submitted to Dr.
havingeec
no
ns pi
contents
. t.
Leeson, the ettemicr.7.l lecturer at St. Thomas's Hospital.
with the complainant
evening, togeti ter with a descrip
Sergeant B. Hannan std that inofiolromf athtieopnroisfotnheero,sccpuerrsreonncael
appearance, he proceeded in company
to a public-hot tse in Holborn, where he I.;.‘d ascertained that
the prisoner w, is engaged as a singer, and, on going up stairs
to a concert-rot nit, in which there were about thirty persons
assembled, the little girl immediately, and without the
slightest hesitat ion, pointed out the prisoner, who was seated
amongst the cos ppany, as the perm; wb.o 44 committed the