Star. — 1808-05-10 (London, England)

RIO.  A poor boy, named John Knight, having been bound out as an apprentice from the house of industiy at Melton, in Suffolk, on the 9th of January last, his master's head man, named John Haselden, took him, while very ill and unable to work, naked out of his bed, put him into a hog-cistern, and unmercifully beat kim with a horsewhip and the root of a tree, and afterwards kicked him. For this brutal assault Haselden was tried at the late Woodbridge Quarter Sessions, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment. The wretch pleaded guilty to prevent the evidence from being given ; but the Magistrates heard the whole case, in order to fix the punishment.  Moanaes.—Wednesday morning, at two o'clock, at Drayton, Dorset, a horrid murder was committed on the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Sledger, of Thaw Farm, two miles from Drayton. Throe robbers broke into the house and alarmed the family, and the,farnter and his wife were bound together in bed. There was only a maid servant, of the name of Sarah Cullum, in the house, and she fled at the alarm, at four o'clock in the morning. Two hours after the servant had escaped, she procured assistance ; when the poor old man and woman were found dead, and manglud in a shocking manner. their ages amounted to 120 years, they were unable to make resistance, and the house had been completely plundered. One of the villains worked on the farm, according to the Information of the servant, and he has decamped: • A few days since George Tapp, alias Godheard, was committed to the Devon county gaol, for the wilful murder of Robed, Leach. It appears, that the prisoner and the deceased (the former a t:dior, the latter a butcher), were both inhabitants of the parish of Morchard-bishop, about thirteen miles from Exeter, and lived on terms of the greatest intimacy. On Sunday, the 44th of April, they were seen at a public house in tke village, and were observed to quit it together; after which time Leach was missing. Various inquiries were made respecting him ; but on the Friday following, his friends being alarmed at his continued absence, investigated mote diligently the events which preceded his sudden departure, when a strong suspicion fell on Tapp, from his having been the Last person in whose company he was noticed, and from his being observed to have more money than usual : added to which, information was given to a neighbour, that on the Saturday preceding the Beth of April, Tapp was observed, very late at night, digging a pit in his garden ; and, on being questioned, at the time, his reap son for workisg there at so late an hotir? he replied, it was merely fot the purpose of burying some dung to make a cucumber bed. On these grounds search was made in the garden, when, shocking to relate, the mangled body of !.each was found, thrown into the very pit 'which appears to have been previously designed for its reception. Tapp was immediately apprehended, and, when in custody, voluntarily confessed his crime, which he stated to have committed in the following manner :—That they walked together from the public house to that of the prisoner, and, on going into the garden, Leash complained of a pain in his head, and sat himself down on a fallen tree; that while he was in the act of tying a handkerchief round his head, Tapp came behind him and struck him a violent blow with an old axe, which be fitted up for the purpose, repeating his blows till he had finished the bloody deed ; that after taking from the pockets of the deceased cash and bills to the amount of about 601. he threw the body into the pit he had prepared for it that he afterwards burnt the handle of the axe and put the iron part into a running stream to wash off the blood. He also burnt his hat, and cut off the marks of blood from the tree with a hook. On being asked how long he premeditated the murder ? he replied, about a week. It does not appear that there" had been any quarrel whatever between the parties ; on the contrary, the greatest intimacy existed between them. There had been some money transactions, in which the prisoner was considerably Indebted to the decea.sed., These, added to a knowledge of his having property about him, are supposed to have instigated him to the commission of this atrocious murder. Tapp 's mother 1 has since been committed as an accomplice.