The Sun. — 1849-01-23 (London, England)

WORSHIP-STREET. _ _  Mrs. Mary Anne Bedwell, stated to be the wife of a fruit salesman in Spitalfields, was charged with violently assaulting and seriously injuring a broker named West, and two of his assistants, named Pilgrim and Bleene. In consequence of the defendant's husband being in arrear for rent, the complainant West received instructions to levy an execution upon his goods for the amount due, and for that purpose, accompanied by two of his men, proceeded to the house at six o'clock on Saturday evening. The defendant was out at the time of the levy, but on her returns and learning the object of their visit, she flew into a violent rassion, and declaring that, sooner than her goods should be taken away, she would smash everything in the place, immediately snatchel up a poker, and laying about her in all directions, very Speedily covered the floor with the fragments of all the glass, crockery, and furniture she had power to demolish. She then smashed out the glass and framework of one isf the windows, and having unavailingly ordered the men, Pilgrim and Bleene, to quit the place before they also sustained injury, commenced a furious attack upon them, and exerted her strength to pitch one of them through the broken window into the street. A violent struggle ensued between them, in which the man's clothes were literally torn to pieces, and the defendant having been foiled in her object dealt the man a blow with the poker which stretched him upon the fluor, and continued beating him so furiously, that the second man (Bleene), in his apprehension that murder would be committed, rushed out for the assistance of the police. Bet ore they arrived, however, West himself entered the place, but had no sooner got in at the door than the defendant caught up part of a bedstead she had previously broken, and dealt him such a blow across the face with it as to break out one of his teeth, and followed this up with , such vindictive determination that he was obliged to make his way out of the house as rapidly as he could. Police-constable 191 H stated, that upon entering the house to take the defendant into custody be found her then engaged in smashing one of the windows to pieces, and that the room presented undeniable evidence of the outrageous nature of her conduct, almost everything in it being broken to pieces, and the fragments lying about in the utmost confusion. Pilgrim described the attack upon him as of so furious a description that he considered the woman must have been either drunk or mad at the time, and after exhibiti■g his clothes, which were torn into tatters in the defendant's attempt to pitch him out of the window, stated that be had sustained such serious injuries from the violence inflicted upon him that he had been obliged to keep his bed all the preceding day. Bleene described the defendant's conduct in similar terms, and West complained that, in addition to one of his teeth being knocked out, he had suffered such agonizing pain in his side ever since that he felt satisfied one of his ribs had been fractured. The defendant generally denied a great portion of the violence attributed to her by the various witnesses, and pleaded in extenuation of the rest of her conduct the dreadful excitement she naturally laboured under at seeing herself likely to be very shortly without a home. Mr. HAMMILL said that the case was one of far too serious a character for him to deal with summarily, and he should, therefore, order the defendant to be remanded for a week, to afford an opportunity for ascertaining the result of the injuries the complainants had sustained.