The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1880-05-01 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

SHOCKING MURDER AT DERBY.  Considerable excitement was caused at Derby on Monday afternoon by the report that a little girl had been murdered under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. About noon a man visited Derby Police Station, and stated that he !ittd an important confession to make. The chief constable, Lieutenant. Colonel Delacombe, who was in the police-court was at once sent fot, and on his arriving in the police-office the man said, "You had better sena some one to my house. I have committed a murder. You can go and see." When making this statement he was quite sober, and appeared calm and in his senses, and his statement was made in such a manner as to cause it to be believed, and the chief constable quickly proceeded to the house of the man, who gave his name as John Wakefield. No. 1 court, house 13, Green-street. On arriving there he found the front door locked and the Louse apparently uninhabited, while the tenants of the two adjoining houses were also out at work. He found the key of the door inside the window, and on entering the front room he saw a child lying in the corner dead, a pool of blood being under her head, and two severe wounds, apparently from stabbing, in the throat. A medical man was sent for, and Dr. Smart soon arrived, and he, after examining the body, pronounced life to be extinct. The body was then removed to the mortuary in the Morledge. It seems that the name of the deceased was Eliza Wilkinson. She was nine years old, the daughter of a man named James Wilkinson, who is at present living in Bridge-street, but who has recently removed from-Newcastle. She and an elder sister, 17 years of age, went out in the early part of the morning ta sell comb boxes in the neighbourhood. The elder sister left the deceased at the top of the yard, and the deceased child, a few moments before she must have entered the prisoner's Louse, knocked at the dopr of a neighbour, who, although she did not see the girl, heard her ask if she required any combs. She called out that she did not, not opening the door, owing to being busy. The child, it is supposed, then went to the prisoner's house, but what actually took place there prior to the murder has not yet transpired. The doctor affirms that the prisoner had not committed an outrage upon her, but her knees were bruised and scratched as  there had been a struggle. At a quarter-past 11 a neighbour named Elizabeth Henley saw the prisoner coming from his house up the court, apparently as if nothing had happened, and this would be about the time when be was starting to go to the police station.—The Chief Constable, on his return to the police office, about half-past one, charged the prisoner on his own confession with the wilful murder of Eliza Wilkinson, but Wakefield, who was dull and morose, refused to make any further statement. It is reported that the prisoner about two years ago wtts Een ten ced to a mouth's imprisonment for indecent assault upon a girl. He is about 30 years of age, and has lived with his mother, who is a widow; he would not work and she had to keep him. At the time of the occurrence he was perfectly sober, and it is said that he is not a man of drunken habits.—The prisoner was brought up at the police station and remanded.