The Northern Guardian. — 1893-06-09 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

POLICEMAN ARRESTED.  PRISONER BEFORE THE BENCH.  The Press Association says that great excitement was caused at Wormwood Serubbs, yesterday afternoon, by the reported arrest of a constable of the Metropolitan Polito on a charge of having murdered a woman found on Wodnesday morning on the Scrubbs, near the Rifle Butts, with her head smashed in, and her mouth filled with dirt, evidently to stifle any cries. On inquiry, the report proves to be true. As far as could be gathered, it appears that the dispenser at Wormwood Scrubbs Prison gave information to the local police inspector to the effect that while he was crossing the Scrubbs late ' on Tuesday night, or early on Wednesday morning, , he saw a policeman, whom he had previously seen on the beat, scuffling with a woman. He was shown , the body of the deceased at the mortuary, and he identified her as the same woman he had seen at , the Serubbs. The police inspector at once ordered the constable to be paraded, and asked him to account for his time on the night in question. He is alleged to have given unsatisfactory 'answers, and wag then called upon to produce his truncheon. He is stated to have offered some excuse for not doing so, whereupon it was ordered that his residence should be searched, and, if necessary, his garden dug up. The truncheon could not be found in the house, and the garden was dug up. Here the truncheon was found embedded in the earth in such a manner as to indicate that it had been pressed into the ground lengthwise by some person's foot. On the weapon being drawn up it was found to be smeared with what is believed to be blood. The constable was thereupon placed under arrest on suspicion of having caused the woman's death. The victim has been identified, it is stated, as the wife of an engineer residing at Shepherd's Bush, a fashionable suburban district not far from the Scrubbs. LONDON, Friday. At West London Police Court to.day, P.C. George Samuel Cooke, 385 X, was charged with the wilful murder of Maud Smith, at Wormwood Scrubbs, on Tuesday night. Harry William Kimberley, night shepherd on Wormwood Scrubbs, deposed to finding the body, the head and face being completely covered with blood. Dr. Robert Jackson, divisional surgeon, said when he examined the body he discovered two fractures of the skull and the right eyeball smashed. He made a post-mortem examination, and found that death was due to laceration of the brain. The injuries had been inflicted by a blunt instrument. By the desire of the police, he examined the prisoner's clothing, and found on the instep of the left foot and on the side of the trousers stains, but would rather not say what stains they were, as it was not in his tine. The Inspector of the X division said prisoner had been in the force for five years, but only in the X division five weeks. On Tuesday night he was on duty in the Scrubbs alone, and on Thursday afternoon he told prisoner that Mrs Robinson had called to see him. Several constables had identified the murdered woman as a person named Maud, who had visited him. Asked who she was, prisoner replied he had known her two and a half years, having first met her in the Strand, where she was a prostitute. He last saw her on Saturday, but on Tuesday she wrote asking to meet him, but he did not reply. Questioned as to the statement of Constable Harris, who identified the body as the woman who had inquired for prisoner on the night of the murder, accused stated that he had spoken to no woman all night. Prisoner said the truncheon and whistle discovered in his garden were hidden so the Inspector should not see them. The clothes stains were caused by a cut. The prisoner was remanded until Thursday.