The Blandford and Wimbourne Telegram. — 1882-02-10 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

SHOCKING MURDER OF A LITTLE GIRL  IN KENT.  The mystery which envelopes the fate of the little girl G o•gina Moore has ouly been partially dissipated by the revelations made at the examination of Esther nay, who ia charged with having caused the child'a death, at the inquest held at Yaldiug. From inuuiries made at the scene of the finding of the body, it would seem that the connection of the accused with the disappearance of the child is much more apparent than the evidence adduced at those inquires tenied to show. Esther Pay, the accused, is one of eight daughters of William Humphreys, bailiff to Mr. Alfred White, of Nettlestead, a village which adjoins the parish of Yalding, being divided from it by the river Medway, which at that point is on'y about twenty yards wide. She has recently been separated from her husband, but for what reason is not apparent. For some time previous to their removal to their present address in Winchester-street, Pimlico, the parents of the child Moore resided with the Pays in a neighbouring street, and here it would seem the father of the deceased child made the acquaintance of , the accused. This acquaintance was of such a nature as to allow of More paying a visit to the accused at her father's house at Nettlestead during the hoppiug sea-on. Since that time neither be nor the accused have been seen in the vdlage until Sat irday last ; but about three weeks azo a man and a woman, the latter of whom answers to the description of the accthed, went into a public-house at Nettlestead. where th:y were deleted in a private room for three hours. The identity of the man has not been established. At the point on the river's bank where the weenier!, Alfred Tinhorn, found the body of the little girl, a pathway leads up from the towing path over the railway, thence across a hopfield mud meadow, to the Maidstone-road, where it comes out by the side of the house of the bailiff Ilumphreye. It thus forms a direct line of communication between the spot where the body was found and the bailiff's. It was by an extraordinary inadvertence that the body was diicovered by Pinhoin. It app tars that Pinhorn was a stranger to the locality, and not knowing the bed of the river over well, he allowed his barge to swing round t the shallow portion of the stream rear the bank, and it was here by the merest aecident that he inserted his boom to push the barge off, and by doing so brought up en object which proved to be the body of the missing child. From the careful manner in which the body was hound it is assunsed that more than one person assisted in the accomplishment of the deed. S.:voral turns of wire were made round the body, and two loops were made at the feet to hold bricks t sink the body. One had slipped out, imd it is expect.td will be found in the bed of the river when the water is drawn off on Friday. It is also thought that the child was murdered before being thrown in, as the body was quite fresh when found. The solicit )r who conducted the defence of Lofroy, Mr. Dutton, has boon engaged for the defence of Esther Pay, who is charged with the Pimlico murder. The bed of the river Medway at Yielding was searched on Friday, but nothing was discovered calculated to throw any light pn the narrate:goes affair. It is now believed that the body was in the water at any rate before the 12th of January, and this opinion is arrived at from the fact that on that day the river overflowed considerably, partly covering the field in which the hat of the deceased was subsequently found. James Ilumphrey, of Kenward, an uncle of Mrs. Pay, picked the hat up on the 15th inset , and placed it on a hedge near, without thinking anything further of the discovery of the article, and it was again noticed there after the body had been taken from the water. Rain fell heavily on the night of Thursday, the 12th, cawing the water to flew very fast, and it is believed that the hat of the dei.eased was by this means carried from where th 3 body had bren sunk in the river, or from the Lank, to the spot where it was found by Mre. P,y's uncle.