The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-10-12 00:00:00

11 from

Manchester to Birmingham, and by that train he had pro-
ceeded to London. In investigating the robbery it had been
found that a large heavy box had gone by _ that train from

Manchester. On the morning of the robbery.during the hours
of divine service, a woman saw two men carrying a box along
Half Moon-street (a retired street near Mr. Thelwell's
shop). They were traced into King-street, where they got
into a coach that was waiting, and drove to a place very near
the house of the prisoner Moobay, in Hulme. The box
could be traced no further than the railway station on Sun-
day evening. Superintendent Sawley, of the Manchester
police, proceeded to London, where, after some difficulty,
he found Mr. Thelwell, on Tuesday evening, at the White
Horse, Fetter-lane, in company with Mr. Horton, and two
persons who said they were from Birmingham. Sawley told
Mr. Thelwell his suspicions, and advised him to go back to
Manchester directly, which he did. Nothing beyond a very
strong suspicion was entertained until Friday, when a
letter was received from Mr. O'Brien, a magistrate of the
county Sligo, accompanied by a copy of depositions taken
before him, from which it appeared that a man named Pat
Rafferty had been there, charged with stealing £7O from a
James Thelwell, the brother of the prisoner. Thelwell
gave a very suspicious account of the way in which he
became possessed of the £7O • and Rafferty, whose sister
had cohabited with James Thelwell, afterwards made a con-
fession, implicating the two prisoners and James Thelwell,
(who had been employed as porter by his brother,) in the
robbery in St. Ann's-square. He stated that the £7O had
been handed over to him as his share of the property, vari-
ous portions of which had been sold in Derbyshire and other
places ; and a fruit speculation had been there entered into
by himself and James Thelwell. A quantity of this fruit
was traced to the possession of the prisoner Aloobay. On
the premises being examined after the robbery, it was evident
that no force had been used except from the inside. It was
pretended to be said that a box-lock bad been broken open ;
but the box had been regularly and carefully unscrewed, not
a bit of wood remaining in the worms of the screw, which
would have been the case had it been forced off. It was
suspected that there were duplicate keys, and that the pre-
mises bad been entered in that way. This was strenuously
denied, but it ultimately turned out that there were dupli-
cate keys, which had been missed since the time the com-
munion plate was stolen. Beyond all doubt, the robbery
had been committed by parties well acquainted with the

nd leaving the refuse

Superintendent Sawley, an officer of police, Thomas Lee,
the private watchman on the premises, and Mr. Gillow were
then examined. The latter stated that he was employed by
the assignees to keep possession of the property. When he
first went the watchman was only employed iu the night ;
but, on the 26th June, Mr. Whitmore, one of the assignees,
gave instructions to Mr. Thelwell to put a watchman on on
Sundays. Mr. Thelwell afterwards said to witness that it
was very unnecessary, as he had not been in the habit of
keeping one either at nights or on Sundays. The watchman
was put on on Sundays, and was paid by Mr. Thelwell on
behalf of the assignees. On the Saturday evening prior to
the third Sunday of the watchman being employed, Mr.
Thelwell said it was very unnecessary, and it was only in-

creasing unnecessary expense to the estate; witness told- him
he certainly ought to know best, but said that if the assignees
knew of the watchman being discharged they would find
great fault. He was afterwards discharged from Sunday at-
tendance, unknown to the assignees. During the Sundays
he watched Mr. Thelwell and his sons let him in and out, as
they did until the 13th of August, when the assignees exclu-
ded them from the keys, and let the watchman in and out.
On the morning of the robbery he was let out a little before
half-past seven, and the premises were left perfectly secure.
The keys were in witness's possession all day till he went to
let the man in at night. when he found the premises as de-
scribed. _ _

Cross-examined—Did not inform the assignees of the
watchman being discarded on a Sunday. Did not inform
Mr. Hobson, by whom he was immediately employed, but
concurred wi h Mr. Thelwell owing to the experience he had
had, by thinking it an unnecessary expense on the estate.
The reason was this : Mr. Thelwell bad then every expecta-
tion ofeoming forward with security to take the stock, and he
would have made more of it for the benefit of the creditors
than the assignees could possibly have done; and witness
knew that if he had told the assignees of the discharging of
the watchman on Sundays, they would immediately have
closed the shop, and not given Mr. Thelwell another chance
of coming forward with security. The reason for not in-
forming the assignees was out of friendship to Mr. Thelwell.
He told him it would not do to let the assignees know,
otherwise it would pat a stop to the whole negociation. Did
not think Mr. Thelwell was acting incorrectly. He acknow-
ledged he was remiss in not informing the assignees that the
watchman had been discharged on Sundays immediately after
Mr. Thelwell had been excluded from the premises on the
13th August.
Re-examined. Mr. Thelwell's negociation with the
assignees had not closed on the 13th ; one part of it was that
Mr. Thelwell would have to pay expenses. •
The letter from the Irish magistrate, and the depositions
taken by him, having been handed up to the bench, Mr.
Saunders asked to have the prisoner remanded, till the
parties could be brought over from Ireland.
Mr. Greene opposed the remand, as far as Mr. Thelwell
was concerned. Mr. Thelwell had shown every disposition
at all times to give all the information to the police, or to
appear at any time when the court thought proper to call
him before it. In point of fact, there was not the slightest
evidence in the word against Mr. Thelwell.
After a conversation the magistrates consulted, and then
said that without expressing any opinion as to the proba-
bility of his being implicated, and thereby affecting his
character, they felt bound to call on him to find two sureties,
in £lOOO each, for his appearance on that day week. Moobay
was also required to find sureties for his appearance on the
same day, when the parties in Ireland, whose evidence has
led to this disclosure, will be brought forward.