The Sun. — 1869-12-10 (London, England)

SUSPICIOUS DEA TE OP A PAUPER.  On Thursday afternoon Mr. John Humphreys, the Middlesex coroner, held an investigation at Hoxton, respecting the alleged murder of John Fresnall, who was a pauper in the Shoreditch workhouse. The remains of the pauper had been buried at Colney Hatch Cemetery,but the coroner' ordered the body to be exhumed, and it was removed to the Shoreditch dead-house. The court was crowded. Tho principal witness was Joseph Ha'let, a pauper, who said that on Monday, the 22nd of November, he was in the workhouse. There was a nurse named Hart in the ward of the infirmary. The deceased was then lying on a bed, and he was delirious. He shouted, " Tobacco ! tobacco !" The nurse Hart then said, "Hold that noise," or " Stop that noise." Sho then went and held a handkerchief over his mouth for two minutes, and when it was removed the deceased shouted "Murder." The wardsman, a man named Clark, then said, " I will do it." Clark then went over to the deceased, and he put a handkerchief over his mouth. He was going to tie it at the back of his head, and the :tune said, "That is not allowed ; soon quiet him." The nurse then left the ward, and she returned with something. Clark then held the deceased down by pressing his hands against the chest. The woman then  stood on the opposite side of the bed, and she poured something down the deceased's throat. After the dose had been given to the deceased he never spoke or made any more noise. He remained insensible until within about an hour of his death—twenty-four hours afterwards. —Clark, the wardsman, said that on the day mentioned the deceased was very noisy, and Mrs. Hart said, " I shall be under the necessity of gagging you." She then put a handkerchief over his mouth. He was very violent, and I thought that I would intimidate him, as I had done the night before, to get him to take a pill, and I went over to him. Mrs. Hart then went and got some of the customary soothing mixture, and gave it to him. When I put the handkerchief over the deceased's mouth it was done for the purpose of stopping his noise, and Mrs. Hart did it because the man would not keep quiet. She put the handkerchief over him, and "it was just what a mother would do for a refractory child." The woman Hart admitted placing the handkerchief over the deceased's mouth, and further said—The deceased became outrageous, and I not having my senses about me—nobody always has—said, " I will go and get something that will quiet him." I then gave him some soothing mixture which I have for noisy patients. It is supplied to me by the dispenser, and it is left to my discretion as to when I shall use it. Tho doctor never gave me any instructions about using it. There is no morphia in the mixture. Half a bottle of it would have done the man no harm. Dr. John Whitmore, medical officer of health for Marylebone, said that he had made a post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased man since it had been exhumed. He had found no appearance of death from suffocation caused by placing the handkerchief over the mouth. Judging from the evidence, and finding that the drowsiness did not increase during the day after the morphia had been taken, he was of opinion that a sufficient quantity of it had not been taken to cause death. The morphia would become wholly absorbed into the system, and that would account for its not being found. In the opinion of witness death had resulted from dropsy. Dr. Forbes, the medical officer of the workhouse, said he agreed with the evidence of Dr. Whitmore. The jury, after a long consultation, returned a verdict "That the deceased man expired from the mortal effects of dropsy; and they are of opinion that the conduct of Mrs. Hart, the in firmary nurse, is highly censurable for administering morphia without the doctor's sanction, and they are further of opinion that the wardsman Clark and Mrs. Hart are both censurable for their cruel conduct in tying a handkerchief over a dying man's mouth."