Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1881-11-05 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

EXTRAORDINARY CHILD MURDER IN CUMBERLAND. A GHIL SENTENCED TO DEATH.  At the Cumberland Winter Assizes on Wednesday, before Mr Justice Kay, Margaret Messenger, aged 14 years, domestic servant, was charged with the wilful murder of a child named Mary Elizabeth Palliator, aged six mouths, in July. From the evidenoe it appeared that prisoner was engaged in June last by Mr and Mrs Pallister (a farmer , and his wife), who live at Sprunston, four or five miles from Carlisle, as nurse to their children. On the morning of the 2nd July Mr and Mrs PsUlster went to Carlisle market, and they left the prisoner in charge of their two children, Margaret Hodgson, aged five years, and the baby, Mary Elizabeth. A hired boy named Haffen was also left working in a field at about a hundred yards distanoe from the farm-house. While at work, about ten o'clock in the morning, Hellen heard the cry of a child, which seemed to him to come from the yard of the house, and almost at the same time he heard the elder child shout out the name of the nurse, who replied, "I'm , here." Haffen thought nothing of the scream, and went on with his work; but about half-past ten Margaret Pallister called him, and he went into a field called Lamb's Close, and the prisoner told him that a tall man without whiskers had taken away the baby, and asked Haffen to go and look for it. He did not believe the story, but he went to the orchard, beyond which there is a stream, and looked, but found nothing. He then went back to his work. About half-past eleven he saw prisoner coming from the direction of the well, carrying the child. Haffen suspected it was dead, and called out to prisoner, "Is it dead ?" She replied it was. He thereupon brought Mrs Story, a neighbour, who found the body on the ground in the yard, quite deA. She took it up, and found that while the face and front part of the body were muddy, the back was quite clean. Prisoner, when asked where she found the body, said she found it in a boggy place near the well. Mrs Story, after using every effort to restore auiniation, went away, leaving prisoner in charge of another neighbour. At about half-past three in the afternoon Mr and Mrs Pallister returned from Carlisle, and to them prisoner repeated her story, adding that the man had a straw hat. After that she gave Mr Story a totally different version, to the effect that as she was sitting on some blocks of wood near the house she fell asleep, and when she awoke the child was gone, and, going to look for it, she found it near the well. Mr Story went to the place indicated, and he there discovered in some boggy ground between the well and the stream an indentation in the shape of a child's body. A stone had been removed some little distance, and was lying close to this indentation. He also found marks of clogs leading from the house to the well. At seven o'clock Police-Superintendent Sempill inspected the place, and had casts of the fool marks taken. Prisoner subsequently said to Mrs Story, "I will tell you. I did it myself, and nobody helped me." A post-mortem examinution was made, and the doctors found that the child died of suffocation, and that there was mud in the lungs as well as in the mouth. The prisoner at the time the crime was committed was thirteen years of age. The theory of the defence was that the child had fallen down the ravine into the puddle, where it was found suffocated.—The Judge, in summing up the case, remarked that if this theory of the defence had been correct a stone would not have been found on the child's head, and the only question for the jury was whether they could arrive at the conclusion that the child could in any way have come by its death except by the act of the prisoner.—The jury, after an absence of ten minutes, gave a verdict of " Guilty," with a strong recomineudation to merey on account of the prisoner's youth.—The Judge, who was muoh affected, pronounced sentence of death, a most painful feeling pervading the Court, and many women sobbing aloud.