Infanticide.
The Times, 1824-10-06T00:00:00

(From the Sherborne Mercury.) It was noticed in our paper of last week, tltat on Friday, the 17th instant, a female infAnt, supposed to have been strangled, was found 11 the church.yard of Ryme Tntrinsica, in this county. Early on the morning of the 17th, the Coroner commenced his inquest, and es no suspicion whatever fell on any individud of that small parisi, conjecture was much at a loss tor the perpetrators of the supposed crime. MIr. Turner, of Sherborne, and Mr. Shorland, of Yeovil, surgeons, opened the body, the inspection of which fullv satis- fiea them that the infant must have been bom alive. The lungs appeared perfegtly healthy and floated in water. The neck had been violently compressed by the strings of a dimity petti. coat, in part of which the body was wrapped when found, aud was the probable cause of the inf4nt's death. On removing the scalp a large quantity of extravasated blood appeared. In the course of die investigation, several respectable persons deposed as to the apparent pregnancy of a young voman, named Brake, and ef the autiden al- teration in her appearance. She was rxsiding with her mother and her step-father, at a cottage, in Hamlet, in the parish of Yet. minster, wherein a young man of the name of Sansom resided as a lodger. It was recollected that this mar passed through Ryme, not unfrequentiy, in his way to Load-bridge, with the w&ggon of his ernployer, Al r. Andrews, of Hamlet, to fetch culm and coals ; and that hedid actually pass that way thenighton whichthe body was sup- posed to have been deposited was proved by a woman, a resident at Ryme, who hearing a waggon stop at a late hour, near her house, imacined that some persons were about to rob her pear-trce, whiclh stands near the road. She called her son, and on going into the gar- den they ascertained that it was Ziansomn, with his master's waggon; and overheard a coniversation between him and a boy respecting a box which he was about to carry vith him. The coroner issued his war- rant, and the mother, daughter, and Sansom, were apprehended. The examination of the young woman's person by the medieal gen- tlemen added strength to the cxisting suspicion, but the deposition of an intelligent lad who went with Sansom and the waggon to Load-bridge, proved to be very important, and amounted in substance to this :-That the waggon driven by him (San- som riding in it) departed from the premises of MAr. Andtews, between ten and eleven on Friday night; that it passed by Kaswell Farm, through Common-lane (a lane teldom passed over by waggons), came to back of Ryme village, and stopped at a stile below the pound, from which a toot-path leads to the church. yard, distant about 150 yards. That he (the boy) stood at the near side of the team; that Sansom got out of the waggon on the off side, next the stile, taking something with him, and saying he was going to carly a box to Benjamin Barret's; that lie was absent about a quarter of an hour, and then returned to the waggon, bringing no. thing back; and that they then pursued their journey to Loadbridge. On being shown the box in which the infant had been enclosed, lie identifed it very satisfactorily; it was, he said, a box that he had seen on the premises at Hamtet, in which a pigeon had been kept, though now a little rseduced in size, a small part appearing to It been recently cut off. The Jury, late on Monday- n'srh, -ur5e A verdict of-" Wilful mnurder against tit. &augbter, her mother, and Sansom," who were committed, on the Corosier's warrant, to Dor- chester gaol. INFANTICIDE. .