The Shropshire Examiner and all round the Wrekin advertiser. — 1874-05-16 (Wenlock, Shropshire, England)

THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF A CHILD NEAR LEICESTER.  The adjourned inquest on the body of Mary Newby, aged two years, whose body as found with its throat cut and the bowels frightfully ~tabbed, in a ditch at Sileby, near Leice,ter, oq the 2nd of May, and whose mother, Sarah Newby, is in custody on suspicion of being the murderess, was resumed on Monday, at Sileby, before the Coroner, Mr. Henry Deane.—Mr. Reeve, Clerk of the Peace, sppeared to watch the case of the county authorit' es ; and Mr. Goode was for the prisoner, wl.o was present in custody, and who, by the advice of her ,olicitor, declined to give evidence in the case. The inquiry lasted several hours, and from the evidence it appeared that the accused is a single woman, about 27 years of age, and the mother of live children, the deceased being one of twins, about Iwo years old. On Monday evening, April 27th, the accused put all her children to bed up stairs, with the exception of a child about five weeks old, which she Jut in the cradle downstairs, after which she.went ,oit, leaving the door unlocked, to go and sit with a friend who was ill. About nine o'clock she left the home of her friend to fetch a nurse, and about halt.past ten o'clo k she returned to her home to tetch the baby, when she says she listened at the le ,ttorn of the stairs and the children appeared all quiet. At midnight she went home, when she tound the caiidle taken from the table, and on ening upstairs she found the candle on the floor and the deceased missing from its bed on the floor just at the top of the stairs, while the other two children which she had left with it were all o,fe. She then gave an alarm to the police ss to the child being missing, and in the e urae of a few days, a subscription having been .ais..d, handbills were issued as to the child having stolen. Nothing more was seen of it until the afternoon of the 2nd of May, when some I..)ys who were playing in a field about two hon.., e and fifty yaide from the accused's house, t-und it lying in a ditch with its throat cut, the 11,1 being nearly severed from the body; and a ' ightful stab in the abdomen—both wounds being vidently inflicted with a sharp knife. Evidence w.is further given that between nine and half past hale o'clock on the night in question a light was ' seen burning in the bedroom of the deceased's 'm's's, and that about that time she was also seen is t, e neighbourhood. It was likewise shown that •be murder appeared to have been committed in ,h.• bedroom just at the top of the stairs, as there ere spots of blood on the wall near to the floor, ' t. aer.marks of blood on the well, and indications the floor in one part of the room having been .• e,,,,ed up very particularly, that part being e-pecially clean. Medical evidence also went to ow that there was blood on the flannel petticoat he prisoner (who attributed it to another cause) also spot. of blood on the outer side of the • •rt of the deceased's dress, evidently caused by a or "spurt" of blood. The tory, however, •••r about half an hour's deliberation, returned an ..n vs, diet—that of " Wilful murder. against  porson or persons unknown." -lhe -police ~ne i the accused in custody, and she was subtly removed to the police-station at Lough. ,gh. where a magisterial investigation will ' -e place.  rhe Kerry election petition bag been withdrawn. Brinley Richards has delivered a lecture on - Tile National Music of Wales?'  he death of Admiral William Keats, 8.N., took • at P, rthill, near Bideford, in Devonshire, on 2nd inst., in the 80th year ofhis age.  • Nrownsu Expi.osiow.—At a fire which broke • • ..•1 Sabirday ni lit In ironmonger's shop at gunpow aeriensiy Injured ' 611 ta• meets