Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1887-04-16 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE HOXTON MURDER.  At the Central Criminal Court before Mr. Jnstiee Grantham. the trial of Thomea William Currell, 31, clerk, deeoribed in the calendar as welteducated, on a ,barge of having wilfully murdered a young woman named Lydia Green, on Saturday, February 5 last, has been heard, occupying four days. He pleaded Not guilty," and was defended by Mr. Gill. Mr. Poland and Mr. Charles Mathew. conducted the prosecution. The evidence snia in tbe main the e I hew'  same as has been already reported in connection with the preliminary police-court proceedings. Mr. Justice Grantham, In summing-up, asked the jury to clnr their minds of all they had read about the rasa, so that they might be unprejudiced. He had sometimes been able to commend the police, but in the present ease there was no evidence of any intelligence in the police at all. In some of the papers it had been asserted that through the skill of the police the capture was made, but that was certainly not so. It was not because of anything they did. It was also unfortunate that the doctor first called in , Dr. Davis) had not made a proper examination and have taken it for granted that because she was dead she must have fallen against a chest of drawers. Dr. iturchell also was moat inaccurate. He must again say wit the police had not shown the same intelligence as they usually do, an?. there was a good deal of truth in what Mr. Gill said, that occasionally the police got certain ideas into their heads, and prosecuted them to the exclusion of others. Not a breath of any scandal had been breathed against the deceased. She was a most exemplary girl, and earned good wager], which, perhaps, she might lose after getting married. Why did they not get married? It could be for nothing except because of prisoner's wayward charnter. He was a man of ability and of good appearance, able to get work anywhere, but even his father never knew where he worked. The behaviour of the prisoner after the murder was unaccountable. If he were an absolutely Innocent man, would he have conducted himself as he did on the fatal morning Lydia Green was murdered by someone—it was suggested by a burglar—and by some one who had a key of the house. It was pretty clew, however, that Curren was within a stone's throw of 8, Baches-streoi, shortly after the murder was committed. The murder was committed by somebody who had a key. The prisoner had a key. He considered it was the duty of the police, whatever they might have thought, to have searched the house in which the deed was done. It was an unaccountable thing that a man who had been engaged to a girl for 12 years on hearing of her death, within a few doors of the house, should not immediately have made some inquiries. If prisoner was guilty, it was extraordinary that he should have gone back to the neighbourhood of the murder; but it was a fact that people were drawn by involuntary impulse to the scene of la murder. The prisoner's conduct with Annie Manton was unaccountable if be were guilty—lt was equally unaccountable if he were innocent. If he were guilty, Annie Manton was the last person with whom he should have a conversation.  The jury retired, and returned into court with a verdict of guilty, and the judge, having assumed the black cap, passed sentenoe of death in the usual mode.  Fowden Brothers, PLAIN AND COVERED COFFIN MAKERS, AND GENERAL UNDERTAKERS, Licensed to Let HEARSES, MOURNING COACHES, CABS, Ac., on the shortest notice.