The Northern Daily Times. — 1853-12-05 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

DREADFUL MURDER OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND  THREE LADIES.- (THIS DAY.) " The most diabolical murder has been perpetrated within three miles of Guildford,at the dwelling of a Roman Catholic clergyman, Sutton-place. The tragedy, which has only just been discovered, has created an amount of dismay never before equalled in this county, so far as the news has at present spread. It appears that at nine o'clock this morning as the baker's boy, servant 'of Mr. Jay, of that town, was in the act of delivering his bread in the district of Sutton, hiS attention was directed by a milkman to the fact of the latter not being able to get any answer at the house of Father Henry Lea, the priest. Both men then knocked and rang the bell violently for some time, but not being answered, and observing no smoke coming from the chimneys, nor any indication of the servant being astir, they went to the rear of the building and tapped loudly at the washhouse window, with the same result. They then beat violently at the washhouse door and still finding no reply they raised, the latch, whereupon the door opened. Thinking it strange, they entered and made their way to the kitchen, and still finding no one, nor any fire in the grate at that hour, they pursued their way to the parlour. where they became' horrified at beholding the Rev. Mr. Lee, at full length, face downwards, and his throat cut from ear to ear, and his head bearing marks of dreadful blows having been inflicted, as if from some blunt instrument. Upon this, both men alarmed the neighbours in the retired spot, and, upon further searching the house, they found three young ladies, cousins of Mr, Lea, also dead, with their throats cut in the same way, and otherwise beaten about the head as their unhappy relative. Upon going to the servants' bedroom, the old woman was found tied down to the bed, with her mouth gagged and almost dead from suffocation, through the manner in which her mouth was gagged. Upon releasing her she was found to be quite unconscious, and after the arrival of a surgeon, she could only be got to cry out, " Ohl the men, the men." It was too clear that terror had deprived her of reason. The Misses Lea were dead, and all the bodies quite cold. The drawers were all ransacked. The police are on the premises.  We immediately dispatched a gentleman from the Observer office to the spot, for the purpose of inquiring. into the particulars, and we have the satisfaction of stating there is not the slightest foundation for the extraordinary concoction, of which our contemporary has unwittingly been made the dupe. The whole statement, from beginning to end, is a wicked falsehood. Our reporter went up to Sutton-place. and made inquiries on the spot, and also called upon the police authorities at Guildford, and he' has ascertained that nothing has occurred, either in the town or its vicinity, which could form the shadow of a groundwork for this most heartless and unjustifiable report. It may also be stated that the Rev. Mr. Lea had no female relatives at or near Sutton-place, nor even in the country, and the only conceivable object of the miscreant furnishing the fabrication, in making three young ladies the sojourners at a priest's holm during the night, must have been with a view to throw a doubt upon the morality of the clergyman whose name has been so shamefully used on this .occasion..---Observer, of Saturday.