The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-29 00:00:00

BURGLARY

Abraham Mills, 31, Abraham Hardy,29, Thomas Stand-
yin, 42, Benjamin Chadwick, 37, John Cocker, 34, and
William Platt, 32, were indicted on a charge of having
broken into the dwelling-house of Josiah Taylor, at Ashton-
under-Lyne, and stolen thereout two jugs and twenty pipes,
the property of Taylor.
Mr. Brandt and another conducted the prosecution.

Josiah Taylor said, that when his family went to bed on
the 28th September, the windows and door were made fast.
About two o'clock in the morning he heard an unusual noise.
The house is on the public road. He got up and opened the
door. He kept a shop. In front there was a yard or fold.
He saw a man named Cheetham with a man down, and who
said, some men had been robbing the house. He saw the
kitchen window forced open. That window had been fas-
tened. The pointing had been removed and the window
forced outwards. A pane in the shop window had been
broken, and the rods cut and removed. Several articles were
removed and put outside. The man Cheetham had down was
the prisoner Mills, who seemed to be sober.
Travis Cheetham said, he had been that night beyond Old-
ham, to see a sick relation. lie returned home with Ann
Diggle and his own wife. When became near Taylor's house
with Diggle, (his wife being behind,) he saw four men stand-
ing in the fold. Standvin was one of them. He (witness)
cried " Hollo !" and Standvin came within two yards of him.
He had stockings on but no shoes. Three other men came
out of the shop without shoes, stockings, or coats. He got
a man to assist him and went back to the house. Three men
were then standing in the fold, whom he did not know. He
said, " Now, lads !" and they ran off. Three others then
carne out of the shop window. The first that came escaped.
The other two struggled, trying which should get out first.
One of them said he would stick him. Witness struck him
down with a poker. That was the prisoner Hardy. Mills
then came out and was secured. The three last that came out
bad neither coats nor waistcoats. The other men outside had
coats, &c., in their hands.
Mr. ComiETT and others defended several of the prisoners
respectively.
Witness, in cross-examination, said that John Diggle was
the man who assisted him. Mills was not drunk. It was
very light, the moon being nearly at the full.
Ann Diggle, wife of John Diggle, corroborated her husband
in the principal facts. She saw six or seven men standing
opposite Taylor's shop window, some of them stripped. She
identified Mills, Hardy, and Platt. Platt first ran away.
Hardy next came out of the window, and swore he'd stick
Cheetham, who knocked him down. Mills got fast to the
coffee-mill handle in coming out, and her husband secured
him and kept him. He was taken into Taylor's house.
Cross-examined.---I always said there were six or seven
men in the fold when I came up. 1 cannot read.
Mrs. Cheetham stayed a little behind when her husband
and Ann Diggle went up to the house. She saw six or seven
men in the fold, all stripped as described. She spoke to the
whole of the prisoners, who were standing there. Cocker
was throwing his coat over his bead. He stooped down, and
said " Heigh !" to her. She left them in the fold.
Cross-examined by Mr. COBBETT.—I never saw the pri-
soners before. I saw them afterwards at Ashton. I saw
them three different times when they were in custody. Jas.
Maiden was called by her husband, along with Diggle, to
assist that night.- She first saw only five of the prisoners.
John Diggle was called up on the morning in question by
Cheetham. When he got to Taylor's, he saw four men with
clothes in their hands. He saw two other men come out of
the window. •He himself took hold of Mills. Cocker was
then about four yards off. _ . .

Matthew Marilen,constable, of Ashton, saw the prisoner
Mills detained at Taylor's. He said he had never been nearer
the house than the middle of the road. Witness asked him
why he was without his clothes, and he said he had been
wrestling with a man on the road. He produced part of the
lead-light taken from the shop window. He found three keys
on Mills, one a skeleton key. He found Standvin and Cocker
at a public-house five or six miles off.
William Robinson, a waiter, said he was waiting at the
Three Crowns public-house, in Ashton, on the evening of the
28th. All the prisoners were there. They were of one com-
pany, and drank together. They left about twelve o'clock
and did not return. Platt had a blue coat and a black hat.

Cross-examined.---They came about eight o'clock. Duck-
infield wakes were on about the time. That is about a quar-
ter of a mile froth Taylor's house. Sometimes people amus-
ing themselves iu that part of the country, take off part of
their clothes.

Robert Newton, deputy-constable at Ashton, found Hardy
in bed at Shaw. He charged him with being at Taylor's
house on the 28th September. He said he was in bed that
night at ten o'clock. He found a pair of shoes in the room.
The shoes were afterwards shown to Mills, who said they
were his, and the same he had on on the night be was at
Taylor's. Witness was' present when Standvin and Cocker
were stopped in a lane. Cocker said he had only been at the
wakes with Standvin, and knew nothing of the robbery.
- Guthy, deputy constable of Staley Bridge, found a
coat and hat. The hat had marks of blood, corresponding
with a wound on Hardy's head. Hardy afterwards owned
the coat and hat.

Thomas Buckley knew Platt. He met him at Barren
Shaw, about six o'clock, on the evening in question. He
(Platt) had on a blue coat and a black hat.
Joseph Wylde, constable of Ashton, knew all the prisoners.
They all lived in Crompton. He charged Standvin with
being concerned in the robbery, which he denied, saying he
was in bed. He also apprehended Chadwick.
The statement made by the prisoners before the magis-
trates was read against him.
Mr. COBBETT addressed the jury on behalf of the priso-
ners Standvin, Cocker, and Chadwick, in a very ingenious
!canner, contending that though they were with the other

prisoners at the public-house,where they had been drinking
hard, there was no positive proof that they were at Taylor's
house, or acting in concert with those that committed the
burglary.

Mr. GLAIR spoke for Platt and Mills, dwelling pricipally
upon the assumption of the principal witnesses as tO the
identifying of the prisoners, which he considered, under the
circumstances, extremely difficult, if not impossible. Only
one of the witnesses spoke to being present.
The JUDGE summed up the evidence, stating the case as
affecting the prisoners respectively, requiring the jury to con-
sider each case seriatim. _

The jury found all the prisoners guilty.
His LORDSHIP called Wylde a constable, and asked him
what he knew of the prisoners, and stated that some of them
were thieves, and others associates of thieves. His lordship
said they had been found guilty, and, after a careful investi-
gation, the evidence was satisfactory to his mind. They,
doubtless, intended to carry off the whole contents of the
shop, had they not been detected. The sentence of the court
was, that they should each be transported for seven years.
The trial lasted upwards of three hours.
STEALING A POST-OFFICE LETTER.

Henry Edward 'Weimar, a genteel looking young man,
was arraigned on a charge of having, at Liverpool, stolen a
letter which had come into his possession by virtue of his em-
ployment, he being a clerk in the Post-office. He pleaded
guilty.
Mr. WILKINS, counsel for the prisoner, requested his
lordship to defer passing sentence until Monday, as he bad
learned that several witnesses could then appear in court to
his character.
His LORDSHIP acquiesced.
_

The counsel for the prosecution said, in consequence of a
recent act, together with the circumstances of the case, it was
proposed to proceed against the prisoner for the petty larce-
ny. The prisoner was then put down.