The Forest of Dean Examiner : — 1877-03-30 (Blakeney, Gloucestershire, England)

ALLEGED MURDEROUS ASSAULT ON A WIFE.  At the Wolverhampton Police-court. on Wednesday, Henry Smith, engineman, of No. 4, Court, Herbert-street, was brought up under remand charged with violently assaulting Mary Smith, his wife, on the 21st February last. Mr. Barrow prosecuted on behalf of the police. it will be remembered that on the morning of the 22nd February the police learned that the woman bad been much injured by her husband. She was removed to the hospital, where it was ascertained that both her jaws were broken, and her husband was subsequently taken into custody by Police-constable Hendrick. Mr. Shoolbred, house surgeon at the Hospital, was now called, and he described the 'injuries sustained by the complainant. He said one jaw was broken on one side and the other on the other side. The injuries were in his opinion the result of direct violence. The woman bad been in the hospital five weeks, and was not yet recovered. _  . _ Complainant was then sworn. Her head and face were bandaged, and as she is still very weak she was allowed to sit whilst giving evidence. She evinced the greatest reluctance to making any statement implicating her husband, and persisted in declaring that on the 21st Feb. she was so drunk that she fell heavily, and thus received the injuries to her head. She had also bruises about the body, but she could not account for the latter, as she became insensible by the fall. The most important witness for the prosecution was a woman, also named Smith, who lived next door to the prisoner and complainant. She said that while in bed at twelve o'clock on the night of the 21st Feb. she heard screams, and going downstairs and into the prisoner's house she saw the complainant lying on the floor, bleeding from the nose and mouth. She appeared to have been drinking. She asked the prisoner not to beat her, and he promised he would not. Prisoner then went out of the house, and witness fetched a woman named Kelley, and the two of them put the complainant to bed. She returned home, ;shutting the door, which had a catch. About half-an-hour afterwards she heard the prisoner shouting, and the door burst open, and, hearing screams again, she ran to the Black Horse to fetch a policeman. On the same morning she again saw prisoner. He asked her to fetch some brandy for his wife, and said, "She was very drunk. I think I have given her too much." Police-constable Hendrick deposed to apprehending the prisoner on the 22nd February. He saw the woman, and she refused to give her husband into custody. Mr. J. H. Love, police surgeon, said he saw the woman on the morning of the 22nd ult., and ordered her removal to the Hospital. She could not have received her injuries by a ; they were, in his opinion, caused by actual violence. Police-constable Smith said that at twelve o'clock on the morning of the 22nd February, he was fetched from Stafford-street to the house of the prisoner by the prisoner himself. He saw the complainant in bed, and prisoner told him she was drunk, and had attempted to strike him with a knife. Prisoner also said that some young men had been " messing " with the woman. When witness saw the woman she was drunk. She was I considerably scratched about the face. Prisoner said he had struck her, but he would not do so again. She could speak, for she swore at witness. At two o'clock he was again fetched by two females, and he then saw the complainant lying on the floor downstairs. Prisoner was upstairs in bed. Witness asked him what he had been doing again, and he said he had not touched her again. The woman was bleeding from the mouth, and her left eye was very much swollen. There was no one in the house besides the prisoner and his wife and the children.—Prisoner was committed for trial at the Sessions.