The Forest of Dean Examiner : — 1875-12-03 (Blakeney, Gloucestershire, England)

THE CASE OF CHILD MURDER IN WOLVERHAMPTON.  The borough coroner (W. H. Phillips, Esq.) held an I inquest, on Saturday morning in the Grand Jury Room, at the Town Hall, upon the body eta female infant child, which VMS found on the previous morning, under circumstances detailed in the subjoined evidence. —James Roberts, of Ash-street, plasterer, stated that about seven o'clock on the morning in question, when going across tho wooden bridge at the end of Alexandra-passage, leading ever Mr. Ironmonger's rope-walk, he saw a bag tied up with a string lying on the footpath against the bridge. He picked up the bag, untied the string, and found that it contained the body of a female child. A man came up at the time, and witness sent him for a police officer. Mrs. Moran, wife of police-sergeant Moran, who lives near, took charge of the body, and subsequently handed it over to Police-constable Garbett, by.,whom it was removed to the Police Station—Police-constable Garbett said the bag in which the child was wrapped was a black one. The body was wrapped up in a napkin inside the bag, and it was in a doubled-up position, There • was a small quantity of blood upon the napkin.—Mr. J. H. Love, police surgeon, said he had examined the body, and was of opinion that it was that of a child that had been born at least two days. The body was partially decomposed. Externally, there was a mark round the neck, especiallyon the right side, apparently resulting from the pressure eta hand. The umbilical cord was torn at the length of about an inch from the body. The tongue was in the bottom of the month. This morning witness had made an internal examina• tion of the body, and found that the child had lived and breathed. The lungs floated wholly in water, and also with the befit and glands, which satisfied him that the child haTffitad A separate existence from the mother. The stomach contained two clots of blood, and the 'usual natural brown fluid, but the child had not been fed in any way. All the blood vessels were compressed. There was an effusion of serum under the skin of the neck, which proved that the child ems injured after it breathed. The brain was congested. The actual cause of death was strangulation, which could not have resulted from injuries caused at delivery. He considered the child had lived about twenty-four hours after birth. The right eye protruded. The vessel of the heart, which, is open in children before birth, was completely closed, and could not have been so unless the child had lived sorao hours after birth. The child was well nourished, and weighed between six and seven pounds, which was the average weight of a new-born child. It was twenty-four inches in length, and had curly hair, of a slightly red colonr. The napkin in which the child Ivan nr.r',nrsl was of the ordinary diameter, and was pinned on in the. usual way. It bore so mark which I coull give ally clue as to ownership. The bag, which was made of black mile°, did not appear to have been much its6l, and he could not discover what it had }men I nor.'. fsr.—A verdict was returned of" Wilful murder againsL lome person cr persons unknown."  E.,-.,7411 AT