The Sun. — 1846-07-06 (London, England)

THE INQUEST. On Saturday afternoon Mr. C. C. Lewis, one of the Coroners for the county of Essex, and a respectable jury, assembled at the village of Dagenham, for the purnose of inquiring into the circumstances attending the death of the unfortunate man, of whose brutal murder the subjoined evidence leaves no clout. On the jury being duly empannellerl, they proceeded to view the remains of the deceased. They laid in an uninhabited houie about a quarter of a mile distant from where the jury met. The body was in a high state of decomposition, and the frightful mutilation of the head showed the brutal violence that had been used. This painful ceremony being gone through, the following witnesses were called  ,mas Kimpton, police constable K 350, said the deceased belonged to the same division as himself, and was about 20 years of age; he was stationed at Dagenham. On Monday evening, at nine o'clock I fast saw him alive, when we left the station to go on duty; the deceased proceeded on his beat towards Romford, and that was the last I saw of him. Between two and three o'clock on the following (Tuesday) morning it was his duty to have met me at the cross-roads to take on reports to a village called Chadwell, on the road to Ilford. On my arrival at the cross-roads I was surprised at not finding him,and I called his name and hallooed, but it was of no avail, he was nowhere to be found. On going off duty, I necessarily reported the circumstance, and the absence of the deceased. The neighbouring ponds then, on the same day—an impression being entertained that he might have accidentally fallen in, were dragged—with no better success; the search was continued until between seven and eight o'clock on Friday evening, when, on going through a corn-field belonging to Mr. Collier, near Dagenham, I discovered a staff (the one produced). Meeting with such a discovery, we renewed the search in the same track, and at abut half-way up the field bank a short distance from where the staff laid, saw the deceased's cutlass sticking in the hedge, covered with blood from the hilt to the point. (The weapon was produced and fully corroborated the evidence of the:witness.) Six yards from the cutlass the body of the deceased was discovered lying in the corn, and near the verge of the field, rot more than three yards from the ditch. His left thhaendeogrrpassepwedas a q a quantityuarter of a mile of %.m•heero atiam his ndthuessuiatul beat of e v eAn ni ag ,B t fleays Is4aowKt,he wasd d alive, enc ee xa st eex am ine examined—On withn heardMth o Monday rest went in search of him until the finding of the body, By the Coroner—Daring the month of March last I was on the same beat as the deceased, when I met a man named William Walker, a marine store-dealer, residing at Romford. He was carrying a sack, and I asked him what it contained. He replied, "It was no business of mine. I proceed to take hold of him to inspect the sack, when he dropped it, disentangled himself from me and ran away, at the same time remarking, "That he would do for me some day." As to finding the body, he deposed to the same facts as the first witness. William Parsons, police-sergeent, K division, stated that he placed deceased on duty last Monday, and met him, on going his rounds at one o'clock on the following morning, at the cross-roads. At that period he seemed perfectly collected, and to his questions gave satifactory an3wers. At three o'clock he again went to the cross roads, but could not see the deceased. On the body being found, he discovered a rattle in the deceased's coat pocket. There was a large wound on the back of the head, a cut on the right of the head, and a stab on the right shoulder. Did not examine the stock then minutely. He had since more carefully inspected it, and had traced two corresponding cuts with those in the throat. In two places the stock was severed. The demised appeared to have been dead some time. To appearance he had had a severe scuffle. Near where the  d. 0 , 4 0 0 9  THE SUN, LONDON, _MONDAY_