Blandford Weekly News. — 1886-09-25 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

REVOLTING STORY.  William Edgar, 18, cook, was put on his trial at the Central Criminal Court, on Friday, on the charge of aiding and abetting Lydia Westlake to endeavour to conceal the birth of a female child, of which she had been delivered, and of which it was alleged he was the father. The young woman, Lydia Westlake, was tried at the last sessions of the Central Criminal Court with concealment of birth, when the facts of the case pointed to the prisoner being the more guilty party. Although the girl was found guilty' the Recorder only imposed a nominal penalty, and the public authorities felt it their duty to institute criminal proctsdings.againstthe prisoner.— Lydia Westlake was now put into the box, and said that while in service at Clapham she made the acquaintance of the prisoner. She subsequently went and slept in the kitchen at his mot hers house in Walworth, where eventually, in the presence of tho prisoner, she gave birth to a child of which he was the father. 'The birth, it will be remembereckwas attended by some revolting circumstances. The prisoner proposed to get rid of the child, but the mother refused to assent to that. Inauediately after the birth, however, she went out of the kitchen, and on her return she saw the child in is vessel containing water. She asked prisoner what he had done that for, and he replied, It could not have lived long, for it was not properly attended to." He persuaded her to go to bed and she did so. On getting up three hours after she did not see the child, but saw a parcel, which the prisoner said contained the infant's body. Having seen that the coast was clear, he gave her the bundle and told her to walk about with it until night, when he would meet her at Waterloo Bridge. She took the parcel and walked about the streets with it for some time, but at last left it on a doorstep. Before meeting the prisoner as arranged, she told a policeman that she had given birth to a child and gave him the address of the house in Walworth. When she told prisoner of this he said, "You have done for yourself," and tirgvd her to say he was not the father of the child. They parted, Edgar proceeding in the direction of his home. After wandering about ill night the girl•went there next morning, when the prisoner's mother said to her, "Heres a pretty affair; the detectives have been here about your child." Westlake replied, "1 ant glad of it, for I will now be put somewhere where I shall be taken care of." Mrs. Edgar sent for the police, and in the pre-ence of her son (the prisoner) gave the girl into custody.—The prisoner declined to ask any questions of the witness, saying that what she had sworn was all false.—The defence was a total denial of the charge.—Without a moment's he..ation the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and added an expression of their indignation at the conduct of the prisoner.— The learned judge, in passing a sentence of 12 months' hard labour, said he had never heard of a more cold-blooded proceeding than that the prisoner had been guilty of. There were doubts as to whether he had not been guilty of murder, and had the evidence on that point been stronger his punishment would have been different.  Sa/t-mal:M; pecolises to become an important ire dustry in Cleveland, as the brine is found over a tolerably large area between Harerton Hill and Eston Junction. Already there are 16 bore-holes. and more are going down.