The Sun. — 1835-03-27 (London, England)

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.,--LANCASTER, MARCH 24. HORRIBLE MURDER BY A FATHER.—John Orrell, late of Bolton-le-Moors, was charged with poisoning, a little girl, eight years of age, named Elizabeth Orrell, his own daughter.  The facts.of the case are very extraordinary. The prisoner was formerly a farmer in the township of Heaton, but four or five years ago he fell into embarassment, and in January, 1831, he was sent to this castle for debt. He remained in confinement until the Bth of this month, when he returned to his wife and family. On the 4th of February his wife died, under peculiar circumstances, involving so much suspicion that a coroner's inquest was held upon the body, and the prisoner implicated, but not sufficiently strong to secure his commitment.. The prisoner (who had been long in the country), then moved, with a boy and a girl, his two youngest children, (he was the father to six), to a cellar in Bolton. On the following Sunday, the 22d of February, the boy died, and the girl was taken very ill. She continued so till the Thursday, when she also died. This rapid mortality excited strong alarm; inquiries were- instituted, and it was found, upon medical examination; that the children had been poisoned with arsenic. Large quantities of that powder we found in the Stomach of Elizabeth Orrell, and it was clear that small and frequent doses had been administered to her, the total quantity found in her stomach being sufficient, if administered in one dose, to cause_ immediate death. A further search discovered a parcel of arsenic upon a lofty shelf in the cellar, which was proved to have been bought at a druggist's a few nights previously by a.man who had a companion with him, who did not choose to show his flee within the shop. No surgical advice had been called in to the poor children ; the prisoner had been almost constantly with them, and had consequently seen them dying inch by inch. Several witnesses were called who had associated with him whilst confined as a debtor; from whose testimony it appeared that up to the day of his liberation be had threatened that as soon as he got his freedom he would kill his wife and his two youngest children. He gave as his reason for this barbarous determination that his wife was faithless to him ; that she had two illegitimate children whilst he was in prison, who were since dead ; and that of the two upon whom he intended to execute his diabolical revenge, he was not the father: It appeared further, that even whilst in the Castle his conduct had been most culpable, and that (after taking his trial) he had been transferred from the debtors' to the Crown side of the gaol for robbery.. The Jury found him Guilty, and he was sentenced to be hanged on Thursday morning.  The little girl, Sarah Rixford, whose affecting case was recorded in our police reports a few weeks since, and for whom her Majesty's well-known charitable sympathy and benevolence were so powerfully excited, has, by her Majesty's munificence, been placed in the Brixton Asylum of " the St. Ann's Society Schools," the merits of which excellent institution insure the inculcation •of such principles of religious virtue as will enable the object of her Majesty's solicitudedul.y to appreciate the blessings thus afforded her, to evince her gratitude to her Royal benefactress.