The Pontypridd District Herald and Rhondda Valley, Llantrisant, Caerphilly, and Mountain Ash News. — 1892-11-19 (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

THE ISLE OF MAN TRAGEDY.  TRIAL OF COOPER.  At the general gaol delivery on Monday at the Court house, Douglas, Isle of Man, George James Barker Cooper was placed on his trial charged with the wilful murder of his wife Edith Annie Cooper, on the 3rd of September last. The general facts of the case are already well known. Toe case as opened for the Crown by Mr. James S. Gel! and Mr. J. M. Cruikshank, in the absence, through illness, of the Attorney-General, Sir James Gel. The members of the Court present were his Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, president, the Clerk of the Rolls, and Deemeters Drinkwater and Gill.—Cooper was was brought in at 11 o'clock, looking considerably paler than when he was previously in court, and on being charged and asked to plead, he answered in a firm voice, "I am not guilty."—r. J. M. Cruiltairtnk's opening for the Crown was frequently interrupted by the counsel for the defence, who said in effect that instead of making a calm dispaadonate state ment to the jury, Mr. Cruikshank was proceeding more on the lines adopted in France.—The first witness called was Mary Ellen O'Brien, a chambermaid at the Regent Hotel. She deposed to having taken brandy and champagne up to the bedroom occupied by prisouer and deceased. The morning after their arrival prisoner came downstairs, and meeting witness said Mrs. Cooper was very ill, but he could not help it. He then went out. At half past 10 witness heard sounds of quarrelling in the bedroom occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, and later on she heard a scream. She did not take any notice of it, but later On she heard a soind as of a body falling out of bed on to the floor. She looked through the keyhole and WM Mrs. Cooper lying on the floor, and Cooper was either kneeling or stooping over her and wiping her face with a towel. Mrs. Cooper had no clothes on. Witness sent for the manager and the bookkeeper, but Cooper said that his wife was only in a faint. 1 After this the witness heard another sound as of a body falling on the floor and Mr. Welden, the manager, was immediately sent for. Witness had noticed that on the previous evening Mrs. Cooper's eyes were discoloured. Jane Cowin, another chambermaid at the Regent Hotel, was called, and she in the main corroborated the evidence of O'Brien. The witness described and illustrated the peculiar manner in which Cooper was in the habit of handling a knife when pairing his nails.— Matilda Yeaman repeated her testimony as to Cooper saying to her, when she remarked upon Mrs. Cooper's black eyes, that he had given her a good horsewhipping and would "pay the little devil :-Itit.—The Court then adjourned until Tuesday. At the resumed hearing on Tuesday against George Barker Jain-s Cooper the deceased woman's sister, L a young lady of delicate appearance, was called as a witness, and described acts of brutality committed by Cooper on his wife. Witness said that on one occasion, when visiting them, she found her sister with blackened eyes. Her sister told her that the injuries had been caused by her husband. Soon after the prisoner, while in their bedroom, bit his wife's arm severely, and when witness ran to assist her he showerea blows upon her and the deceased. Cross-examined, the witness attributed the prisoner's violence to excessive drinking, She admitted that he had made presents to her.—The Court again adjourned.  A German workman who has been convicted of being the perpetrator of no less than 15 incendiary fires has just been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment with hard labour.