Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1880-04-17 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

BELMONT MURDER,  TRIAL OF JANE BARRON.  Barron said she sat up till three o'clock in the morning, and Robert not coming in she went to bed. After milking next morning she (Batron) thought she would look into the loft, and she found deceased lying on his back, and blood was coming out of his mouth. She told old. Snowball, and. both went into the loft to look at him. The old man, on seeing his son, said, "God help us, it is Robert." Witness was present when deceased I was removed upstairs. She (Murray) asked prisoner to assist them, but she made no , reply. Cross•examined : Prisoner told bet that deceased was " a fine young man," and the "best of them." There were plenty of people to cirry the body upkairs. htizabeth Kirk, widow, formerly in service at Belmont Farm, said she went to the farm on January 2nd. She sat up all night, talking with prisoner, when the latter made similar statements to her as to the previous witness. She identified the clothing with spots of blood upon them as belonging to prisoner. By Mr Ridley: Prisoner showed me where spots of blood had come down through into the byre. On looking witness saw some spots of blood on the partition. On Saturday night witness asked the prisoner to go to bed, but Barron refused, saying she could  not sleep. Thomas Hall, farmer, Ilexham, deposed to having a bill of sale over the farm stock of deceased. He carefully examined the flooring of the loft, and could see no light between the boards. Blood had come through the side next the hay loft as far as the partition, but there was no blood on the under side between the byre and the loft. John Snowball, jai:lr, , brother, of the deceased, knew of no quarrel between his brother and anyone in the neighbourhood, but, on the contrary, he was on good terms with everybody. Cross examined: Prisoner was on good terms with the family. They had no trouble with trespassers. William Montgomery, surgeon, described how he found the body. It was cold and rigid, and had been dead from ten to twenty hours. There was no blood on the hands. The blood on the fa3e was dry, and that on the floor was clotted. There was only one tooth in the Mouth. He made a post mortem examinationtand found an extensive fracture in all the bones of the skull and face, and a fracture on the back of the head would cause death at once. The hammer produced exactly fitted the wound at the back of the head. A man on receiving that fracture would fall instantly. The upper and lower jaws were broken ; the teeth were gone; the palate bone was broken; and the upper lip was cut as if by a blunt instrument. These injuries might have been caused by a blow from a hammer when deceased was lying on his back. All the organs of the body were healthy, but bloodless. Cross-examined: Veinous blood might flow from the body twelve hour,. after death. It was possible for blood to be dropping on the 2nd of January when prisoner was milking cows, but he thought it had all flowed out before that time. What he said was that blood might flow conditionally for twelve hours after death. Superintendent Thubron, Inspector Liddle, and P.C. Alex. Ferguson, gave evidence as to the state of the defendant and byre, and detailed where the blood had come through, showing that it could not have fallen upon the prisoner when milking the cows. They deposed to apprehending prisoner, when she made no reply. This closed the case for the prosecution. Mr Bidley, in defence, submitted that the evidence of old Mr Snowball was totally unreliable, that there was an entire absence of motive on the part of the prisoner, that her statement was quite consistent with the evidence for the prosecution, and that the murder was committed by some person concealed in the loft who had a grudge against the deceased. The Judge, in summing up, described the law of circumstantial evidence. The jury retired at twenty minutes to seven o'clock, and returned into Court seven minutes later with a verdict of