The Sun. — 1851-12-01 (London, England)

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. OLD COURT. (Before Mr. Justice MAULE The following case was specially fixed for this morning, (Nov. 29), and the court was accordingly opened at ten o'clock. Owing to some misunderstanding, however, the jury, counsel, &c., were kept waiting until twenty 'minutes past one o'clock, at which hour the Learned Judge took his seat on the bench.  William Smith, alias Glenister, aged twenty, was indicted for the wilful murder of Mary Elizabeth Reynolds.  Bodkin and Mr. Clerk conducted the prosecution. The prisoner would have been without the assistance of counsel, but the Sheriffs, upon becoming acquainted with the fact that he was not in a condition to obtain such assistance, very kindly requested Mr. Cooper to watch the case on his behalf. Mr. BODKIN having opened the facts in a clear and temperate address to the jury, the following evidence was adduced :  Elizabeth Reynolds deposed that she had cohabited with the prisoner for about three months before the death of the child in question. They lived at No. 6, Douglas-street, Westminster. About eight o'clock on the evening of the 234 of October witness went out, leaving the infant in the prisoner's room asleep. It was witness's child by another man. She met with a friend of the prisoner,and they drank together, and sbe became intoxicated and was locked up in the station-house, and was taken the next morning before a magistrate, who discharged her. When she went home she found her child covered with bruises, and quite dead ; and, from what the persons i❑ the house told her, she went to the Equitable Gas-works, where the prisoner was ,employed, and upon seeing him she exclaimed to him that he had murdered her child. The prisoner replied, " You should have been at home. I have murdered it. What to do I don't know. I had better b— well go and drown myself." A policeman was sent for, and the prisoner was given into custody. (A child's and a man's shirt, both saturated with blood, were here produced and identified by the witness as being those of her child and the prisoner.) In answer to a question put by Mr. COOPER, the witness said that the prisoner sometimes appeared to be fond of the child.  Caroline Lund, a lodger in the same house, and occupying a room adjoining that of the prisoner, proved that on the night of the 23d of October the prisoner came home between 7 and 8 o'clock, and by his manner she had no doubt that he was very drunk. As he was going upstairs be called out "All right" three times, and he then went into his room, and very soon afterwards she heard the child cry as though it was being slapped or beaten. The prisoner then exclaimed, " You little wretch, if you are not quiet I will kill you," and she then heard the child cry again. Immediately after this witness heard the sound of a thump or fail upon the floor, and then the child cried still more violently. The prisoner made use of very bad language to the child, and said that if any one interfered he would serve them the same, and she also heard him say, "My life is a misery ; I am miserable; I know I shall be hung, and I may as well be hung out of the way." After this there was another sound, as though the child was thrown down again, and it screamed violently. Nobody but the prisoner was in the room at the time. James Henry Walker, a shoemaker, living in the house, gave similar evidence as to what took place in the early part of the evening. He also said, that between 12 and 1 on the following morning he again heard the child thrown down and beaten, and it screamed violently. Between 5 and 6 the same thing occurred again, and about 6 the prisoner went out, and he did not hear the voice of the child any more. About 11 o'clock he went into the prisoner's room and saw the child lying dead, and dreadfully disfigured, and covered with a piece of ticking. The witness also stated that the prisoner was in the habit of illusing the child, he had repeatedly complained of it, and said that he would not stop in the house if he continued such conduct.  By Mr.