Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1883-05-05 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE HORRIBLE TRAGEDY IN SALOP. At the Stafford Alißin., before Mr. Justice Fitojames Stephen, Thomas Mayes and Nl:try Elilabeth Mayo., Iris wife, were recently indicted for the wilful murder of a daughter of the former by a previous marriage. The man is a gardener, and 42 years of age, whilst the woman'. age was given as 30, though she appeared nearly 60. Mr. Rose prosecuted, and Mr. Darling and the Hon. A. Lyttelton defended. After the casa had proceeded a short time, counsel for the Crown, at the suggestion of his lordship, withdrew the charge of murder against the male prisoner, and proceeded against him for being an accessory after the fact. In December last the prisoners left Shrewsbury and went to live at Kynnersley, near Wellington, the man taking a situation as groom. On January 10 the child was noticed by a neighbour to have two black eyes, a wound on the elbow, and other injuries, which she said her mother had caused with a stick. A few days later the child woe heard screaming in the house, whilst the amnia of what appeared to be the lashing of a strap with a buckle attached to it was heard=On Feb. 1 the child wa) last seen alive. According to the statement of the girl's brother, the mother was on that day a long time upstairs with his sister. Sent day the female prieoner told NOM neighbours It, it she had sent her child to Shrewsbury, and witneaes tedified to seeing her carrying a lorge bundle on Feb. 9. Mr. Joseph Bates, a Wellington gentleman, was near Apley Pool, when his dog discovered wl at proved to be a human head. The head seas identified as belonging to the deceased, and after careful examination by Dr. Bond, of London, was pronounced to have been boiled. Dr. Bond also gave it as his deddel opinion that injuries sufficient to cause death most have been indicted during life. The girl's legs were mbeermently found in a pool, but up to the present time the bode has not been discovered. Blood Inn, found on the back stain and floor in the prisoner's house, and also upon some clothes belonging to deceased. During the time the female prisoner was upstairs with her daughter she would not let her son enter the room ; but when her husband rame home to dinner they both went into the room together. The theory of the prosecution was that the woman,when she first went upxtairs, killed the chil and she and her husband afterwards mutilated and dia. poed of the body. When arrested the prisoners made contradictory statments 'rhe woman stated that the death was accidental, and that the mutilation was effected to conceal the baly. She was "Fishing the child's death not to be known, inasmuch as elm e was known to have cruelly tee ded her. A painful scene took place when William Mayox, aged 13, a brother of the deceased, was giving evidence against his stepmother. The lan burst into taws, and could not proceed with his evidence for a little time, the business of the court being meanwhile suspended. The prisoners also cried bitterly, the woman wringing her basso as if in an agony of despair. The lad, who was under examination nearly an hour, Mated that his stepmother had acted very cruelly to the deceased and himself, frequently lashing them both, and starviug Ma Siste, Before the prisoners were arrested witness taw a police bill on the wall saying, "Found a human head. Supposed murder." He told hisstepmother of the circumstance, but she made no reply. The female prisoner shook her head at her stepson on several occasions whilst he was giving evidence. For the defence it was urged that the death of the child was the result of accident, and that the body was made away with in consequence of the terror-stricken state of the prisoners who were admittedly guilty of cruelty to the child. The jury returned a venlict of " Manslaughter " against the female prisoner, and she was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude. The husband, found guilty of being accessory after the fact, was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard labour.  ;