The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-29 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

BRUTAL ASSAULT.—,TanksTieliann,a fellow of dis-
sipated appearance, was charged with having committed
a violent and unprovoked assault upon Robert William-
son, a boy twelve years of age.
It appeared that the complainant was proceeding
along Goswell-street on the preceding evening, when
the prisoner (who was very much intoxicated)
crossed over from the opposite side of the way,
and without receiving the slightest provocation, com-
menced a violent attack upon him, and struck him
several blows in the face, the marks of which were
still apparent. The prisoner was immediately taken
into custody by police constable, G 30, who witnessed
the outrage, and whose attention had been pre-
viously attracted towards the prisoner in consequence
of the blasphemous and threatening language which
he used to other persons, many of whom ran into the
road in order to avoid him. The prisoner had been
several times in custody on similar charges, and it was
stated that his intellects had become impaired from the
effects of the long continued habits of drunkenness in
which he had indulged.
The prisoner was ordered to pay a fine of 205., or be
committed to the House of Correction for 21 days.
Edward Moore, a lad about 18 years of age, who
stood charged with having stolen a variety of articles of
wearing apparel, from the persons of different children,
was put to the bar bfore Mr. Broughton for final ex-
amination.

It appeared that on the 16th inst., Police Constable
Dewar, G 151, was called into the shop of Mr. Kirk-
wood,'a pawnbroker, in Brick Lane, Old-street, where
he found the prisoner, who was given into his custody,
upon a charge of stealing a cloak and two pairs of boots,
belonging to children named Hill, which he had pledged
at the shop on the preceding day. The police had
previously received information that numerous rob-
beries of a similar kind had been committed by a lad
answering the prisoner's description, who had been in
the habit of decoying away children, by promising them
toys and sweatmeats, and afterwards robbing them of
their clothes ; and it was stated that the thief gene-
rally carried about him some blacking and shoe-
brushes, and that he persuaded the children to allow
him to take off their boots for the purpose of cleaning
them. After taking the prisoner into custody the police-
man searched his pockets, and found therein a small pot
of blacking, a quantity of toys, and some articles of
wearing apparel belonging to children.
Samuel Cressingham, a shopman to Mr. Kirkwood, the
pawnbroker, produced the cloak and boots, which were
identified by Mrs. Hill, the mother of two little boys
from whom they were stolen, on the I.sth inst.
A great number of other children who had been
stripped of their clothes were present with their parents,
and the policeman Dewar said that upwards of twenty of
them had pointed out the prisoner as the thief, but he
had only succeeded in recovering the property in six
cases.
Mr. Vine was desired, by Mr. Broughton, to take
down the depositions in all the cases in which the pro-
perty had been recovered.
Amongst the cases was one in which a boy, five years
old, the son of Mr. Burgess, a clockmaker, in Percival-
street, Clerkenwell, was robbed by the prisoner, as long
ago as the month of May last. It appeared that
the little fellow and his brother, who were on their
way to school when they were accosted by the prisoner,
who asked them to accompany him a short distance and
he would give them some sweetmeats. On reaching the
corner of the street he desired the elder boy to wait there,
and promised to send back his brother with the sweet-
meats ; but after waiting some time without seeing
either of them, the boy returned home and apprised his
parents of what had occurred. Nothing was heard of
the missing boy until a late hour in the morning, when
information arrived that he was in the station-house at
Hoxton, and his father ascertained, on going there, that
the boy had been fastened in a shed in Greengate-
gardens, Hackney-road, where the prisoner had left him
after stealing his hat and blouse.