Bridlington and Quay Gazette. — 1899-12-22 (Bridlington, Humberside, England)

DALSTON.CLULD MURDER  VERDICT AND SENTENCK  Mr. Justice Brum, at the Central Criminal Court, an Monday, resumed the trial of Louise Josephine Jemiina Masse& on the charge of ii,ordering her child, Maufred Miuiset, at )alston Junction Station on the North London itailway, on ()atelier 271 h. The prosecution was conducted by Mr. Matthews and Mr. muse, and the prisoner was defended by Lord Coleridge, Q.C., Mr. Arthur Hutton, and Mr. W. Bevil Smith. As on previous days, the Court was thronged with spectators, conspicuous amongst whom were a large number of ladies and si,voral of the prisoner's relatives. Mr. Mathews, in his eddies* to the jury pointed out that the manner in which the prisoner had given her evidence showed that she was a women' of enormous strength of will and purpose. She appeared also before the jury as a woman who did not hesitate to tell falsehood upon falsehood to attain and accomplish the object she had in view, and under no °framestances could the pressure be more strong to continue in the same course than when in the ' witness-box giving evidence upon which her lifo might depend.- The greet question in this ease ITIIS this: Did the prisoner go, 118 slim asserted, to Brightos by the font o'clock train ,on the afternoon of October 27th? If she did, she could not have committed the murder. It, however, as was asserted by the prosecution, the did not go until the twenty minutes past seven o'clock in the evening, there was the most ample opportunity ,of committing the murder. He asked the jury to discredit the prisoner's story as to walking about Brighton from soon altar five o'clock in the afternoon until between nine and ten o'clock. Ile also dealt with the prisoner's conduet in London after she believed the body found was that of her child. Did she go to the mortuary or exhibit any anxiety to ascertain the tact? No; she posted off to Croydon to the house of her brother-in-law, where she arrived in an ex-. cited state, exclaiming, "I'm being hunted for murder, but I did not do it. In this oase there existed a combination of facts which very strongly corroborated the theory of the prosecution. Not a single person had been called to support the statemeets of the prisoner.—Lord Coleridge, Q.C., addressed the jury in defence. Mr. Justice Bruce, in his summing-up, was careful to point out that the case was of great importance to the general public. "There can be little doubt," said his lordship, "that the little boy was brutally and cruelly murdered, and that its clothes were stripped from its body to destroy identification; but hard as must have been the heart of the murderer there was one touch of human feeling, and so a shawl was thrown over the body." The brick, the shawl, and the child's clothing were all pointa which they must weigh carefully. The jury retired at 4.50 to consider their verdict, and after an absenoe of rather more than thirty minutes retnrued to court with a verdict of "Guilty.—The prisoner was sentenced , to death. Miss Masset stood as still as a statue for nearly a minute after sentence was pronounced,and thee fell back half fainting into the ward. vase's arms. Asked if she had anything to say before sentence was passed, she replied, in tremulous tones, "I am quite inoocent of the charge," and, sitting down, cried bitterly.