Star.
London, England, 1824-04-08 00:00:00

LENT ASSIZES.

TAUNTON, APRIL S.

John Moon and John .Beard were indicted for assault-
ing Samuel Wyatt, on the highway, and stealing fi om
him a sovereign, a one pound note, and some silver.
Samuel Wyatt, examined by Mr. ERSKINE.—He was
a farmer of Marksbury, about foutteen miles from
Shepton itlallet. He went to Shepton on the 15th h•f
January last, and on the road got rather intoxicated.
He did not intend to return home that night, bu: find-
ing he could not get a bed at the George Inn, where he
intended to stay, he went out in the evening. The first
thing that happened, that he recollected after he got
41u t, s his receiving a blow on the head,which knocked
him down, and soon after he felt a hand in hii pockN.
Sometime in the course of the night, he came to his re-
collection, and then he found himself in bed. Ilis head
was covered with blood; and horribly bruised, his sides
and face *ere also bruised and much cut. His money

had all been taken nom his pockets.
Mr. Newman kept the tap at the George Inn, at
Shepton. Wyatt, the two prisoners, and a companion
of theirs, named Lewis, was there. On the evening of
theslsth of January, Wyatt asked for a bed in the
house, and on being told he could not be accommodated,
Moon undertook to procuie him one at the Hare and
Hounds. They
.went out together, and Beard and Lewis
followed them. Wyatt was much intoxicated.
John Moody saw Moon leading the prosecutor in a
contrary direction to that which he bad proposed
doing. They were going along a lane to some fields.
Benjamin Mutton saw Moon conducting Wyatt to-
wards Tennis Court Fields. On reaching a gate, Moon
said to the prosecutor, seeing he was not disposed to get
over 17, -- you, you always want to go the farthest
way home." They continued along the road io• a short
distance, when Moen cried out, "Ha!" as if for a
signal for some oneao follow him.
Francis Moody, in travelling along the same lace,
heard tho voice of a man groaning by the side of a hay-
rick. He got over a gate, and saw the prosecutor on
his hands and knees trying to get up. It was moonlight,
and he turned the man over so as to see his face. Wyatt
was bleeding from every part of his head, and he put
his finger to the eye to see if it was beat out. Ile as-
sisted the prosecutor from the field, and put him into
a cart in the road, and had hint carried back to t!-,e
Swan, at Shepton.
Coles, a labouring man, in going to the spot where
the robbery was effected, met Moon and Lew is in
earnest conversation together. lie asked them if they
had been on that road earlier the same evening ? and
they answered, " No." Ile passed them, but hid 11;m-
-self so as to watch them, and saw them return back to
the spot where Wyatt was found, and pick up a piece
of paper. He gave information of what he had ob-
served, and the prisoners were taken into custody the
same evening.
A shopkeeper of Shepton sold Beard some clothes,
which be paid for with a part of the money which had
been taken from the prosecutor.
Stone, the constable of Shepton, took the prisoners
into custody, and on one of them found a piece of paper
which the prosecutor's wife afterwards proved she had
wrapped the sovereign in.
Thomas Lewis, an accomplice in the crime, was
drinking with Moon, Beard, and Wyatt, on the night of
the robbery. Moon took Wyatt out for the purpose,
as was pretended, of taking him to a lodging ; but, in
fact, to take him towards a hay-rick, to rob him. He
and Beard-followed diem, and when Muon had got the
prosecutor by the side of a rick, he knocked him down
and took his money from him. Moon struck him with
his fist, and Beard beat him with a stick, the prosecutor
having made a resistance by striking Moon. After
Wyatt had been beaten some time, he cried out Oh
Lord !" and struggled very hard. The prisoner Beard,
after they had left the spot, said he did not think Wyatt
would live long.
Mr. Haines, a surgeon, of Marksbury, described the
severe cuts and bruises with which the prosecutor was
disfigured by the treatment which he had received.
Wyatt remain:A ill for upwards of five weeks, and in the
former part of the time was in great danger of dying,
from excessive weakness from the loss of blood.

Mr. Justice BURROW:MI, in his charge to the Jury,
begged they would consider the evidence attentively,
as the consequences to the prisoners would be certain in
case of a conviction.--The Jury found both the pri-
soners
Mr. Justice ButtßouGH directed the prisoners to be
brought up for judgment immediately. The Jury, his
Lordship said, had taken great trouble in investigating
the case, and had come to very satisfactory convic-
tion of the guilt of the prisoners. His Lordship had
ever considered it his duty to put the law in full force,
where a robbery was attended with circumstances of
cruelty. The line of life of the prisoners must have been
extremely base before they could have prevailed upon
themselves to use the prosecutor so ill, as that one of
them supposed he would not live ; and therefore he en-
treated them to make the best use of the short time they
would remain in this world, as he assnrcd them that 1:e
should not interfere to procure mercy for them. Hit.
Lordship then proceeded, in impressive language, to
pass sentence of death on them.

A prisoner, of the name of Binhice, charged on a
Coroner's Inque,t with the manslaughtet or his wife, on
reaching the door of the Court at Taunton, in the cara-
van in which he was confined with other prisoners for
trial, was taken suddenly ill, and before medical aid
could be obtained he died.

A farmer's wife. of the name of Halfpenny, re,iding
near Tenbury, has been committed to prison, charged
with the murder of her servant, Mary Walton. The
head of the deceased proved to be deeply wounded.—
Ever since the unhappy affair the crisoner has been in
a very dejected state, but denies positively the guilt im-
puted to her, alleging that the fatal wound on thehead
was occasioned by the poor girl's falling down with a
pail of milk.
A RonaND rots AN OLIVER.—A native of Kennc-
bunk Maine, United States, 'who had been fur- many
years more devoted to Bacchus than to the Goddess of
Love, and who, in his drunken fits, used frequently to
,maltreat his spouse, was lately visited by several indig-
aunt Amazons, who had determined. in some way tn
punish him for his neglect of their sex. Tacy went to
his house one evening in the beginning of last month ;
one knocked.at the door, and when our Gentleman came
with a light and opened it, another slipped in, - extin-
guished the light, seized liirn by the etas, and pushed
him out of the door, and by the help of tin: others, they
laid him face downward in the snow, one sitting en his
head and the other on his feet, while the third paid hew
back with interest the full amount fir6ell4tions which
, he had bestowed on his wife.