The Sun. — 1842-03-03 (London, England)

GURNEY—Then you stand committed. Jiibez Rainbow, alias Kirk, aged 18, a soldier, was capitally indicted for cutting and wounding. Jane Pearse with intent to murder her. In two other counts the prisoner's intent was laid to maim and disfigure the prosecutrix, or to do her some griev us bodily harm. Mr. Lydekker conducted the prosecution, Mr. C. Jones de-. fended the prisoner. It appeared in evidence that the prisoner, who is a native of Coventry, had enlisted into the 34th Regiment of Foot, and had been stationed at St. Alban's as part. of a recruiting company, and he there formed a connexion with the prosecutrix, who was a female of loose character, and they cohabited t gether for several months. On the night of Sunday, the 3e of Oct., the prisoner and the l'rjsecutrix, apparently on good terms with each other, went to the Boot public-house at St. Alban's, where they enga'ged a bed, and in the morning, about ten o'clock, the prisoner called for some ginger-beer and porter, and he and the prosecutrix drank it. The latter soon afterwards fell asleep. It a very short time the prisoner was heard to call out " Murder, murder, come to me, call for the police, and give me into custody ;" and upon the landlord going into the room, he found the prosecutrix lying insensible on the bed, with her throat cut, and the prisoner standing in the middle of the room without his clothes, and covered with blood. On his being questioned, he said, " I did it ; I cut her throat," and then quietly resigned himself to the custody of the policeman who had been called in. From the evidence of the girl Pearse,` it appeared that she was awoke by feeling a sensation of suffocation, and, on putting her hand up to her throat, according to her own statement, "it sank into it ;" and she then saw the prisoner with a razor, in the act of cutting her throat. She struggled with him until she became insensible, and this was all she could say upon the subject. The surgeon proved that the wound on the throat was six inches long, and half an inch deep • it severed the windpipe and the muscles of the neck. He also said that there were fourteen other cuts upon different parts of the person of the prosecutrix ; and one of them, which severed the tendons of the right hand, was not yet cured. The most extraordinary part of the story was that there appeared an entire absence ot motive on the part of the prisoner for the desperate act he had committed, the girl herself admitting that up to that time he had always been very kind to her ; and that on the day the affair took place, there had nut been the slightest quarrel between them. Mr. C. JONES addressed the Jury, and urged them strongly to release the prisoner from the capital part of the charge, contending that the offence must have been committed by him while lan was labouring under a paroxysm of temporary madness. The Jury found the prisoner guilty upon the third count, and Mr. Baron Gurney ordered him to be transported for fifteen years. • William Morgan, 59, was capitally indicted for cutting and wounding John l'arks, with intent to murder him. ,eait and dapnetahreed2,tiltihatotfliNe op‘r.ei.smonbeerr, wuapsonthseo mtheetprirfloisnegc u tlonetshui sneer e altercation between them, the prisoner drew a carving-knife froM the breast ot his coat and male several stabs with it at the prosecutor, and one of the thrusts wounded him in the arm, but not severely. It transpired in the course of the evidence that the prisoner, at a former period of his life, had been confined in a lunatic asylum, arid he had recently conducted himself in such an extraordinary mariner on several occasions, that there was every reason to believe that he was nut of sane mind. The Jury, therefore, acquitted hint on the ground of his being insane at. the time he committed the offence, and he was ordered to be detained in safe custody until her Majesty's pleasure respecting him should be made known.  CIVIL SIDE,  Baron AmmtsoN sat at nisi Arius. Thee arc eleven CMS for trial ; two of which arc special juries. One of them, the Queen v. Webster, is fixed for this morning. Ills Lordship disposed of several common jury cases during the day, but none of them contained any feature of public interest.