Star. — 1825-08-25 (London, England)

SUMMER ASSIZISS. LANCASTER, AUGUST 22. MANSLAUGHTER. Robert Nutta was indicted for killing and slaying William Lupton;. the prisoner was tried upon the Corona's Inquisition ; the Grand Jury .having. thrown out the bill preferred'against him. • Mr. STAMM stated, that fllis was a case of a very peculiar nature, and called for their most serious attention. It would be proved to them, that the prisoner at the bar had administered poison to the deceased. It would be for them to consider the circumstances, and with what motives it was so adrninisteled. They would weigh all the facia of the case, in order to decide whelier the deleterious drug was administered for the purpose of producing a beneficial and salutary effect; or for other more dangerous purposes ? In the one case they must find the p. ironer guilty of murder; in the other, it would amount only to manslaughter. He hoped that this trial would prove a salutary warning iv, those individuals who tampered with the lives of their fellow-creatures without possessing the sligh.cst knowledge of medicine. William Lupton, a boy of six years old, sori of the deceased, was called and examined as to his knowledge of the obligations of an oath. He having been found to understand it perfectly, he was examined, and went on to state that he remembered when his father died ; he died on a Sunday; he went to bed about eight o'clock on the evening before ; Nuttall was in the house on that evening. Witness was then in Led in a room on the same floor with his father ; he could clearly see what was passing in his father's room; he saw Nuttull holding a paper of pills in his hand ; the paper also contained seine white ptividers • he did not hear the prisoner say anything to his alter. On the following, morning his father mixed one of the powders in a cup and took it. There were pills, and arsenic mixed up in the cup; his father did not take tbe-pills. Cross•examined : He knew it to be arsenic, because his mother told him so. John Howett said, he saw the prisoner at Coke Fair on the Bth of March ; he told witness .thati.upton was very 111, and troubled with worms, and that it he cured him, he was to have fif een shillings for the job. He called upon witness in about a week; and asked him if he had not got some _pills from John Blakey for the worms? Witntss said' he• had. Prisoner, upon looking upon them, said he could make pills, like them. Ile did not say why be wished to look at the pills. Two druggists deposed, that a day or two before thel death of the deceased, the prisoner bought two pennyworth of white mercury, which he was told was poison, and which he desired to have wrapt up in three separate papers; be got in another paper two pennyworth of jalap. Nancy Brown and Sarah Lupton were called. They proved that the prisoner and the deceased were seen together on the night in question, and that the deceased had taken the powders which-the prisoner bad brought him; that he became violently ill iu consequence of taking them, and that he died the-following day. Mr. Petty, a surgeon, said he opened the body ; he found in the stomach a quantity of brown liquid, weighing nearly a pound and a hall'; the coats of the stomach were much injured by it. • Another surgeon had analysed the liquid, and had discovered a quantity of arsenic in it.. The stomach was in a situation which indicated the reception of mineral or vegetable poison. Dr. Lester was called, but did not appear. Mr. Justice BMW, in summing up, dwelt upon the very tender age of the witness upon whose testimony the case rested. The Jury returned a verdict of—Not Guilty. Mr. Justice BATLEY told the prisoner he had had a very Narrow escape, and cautioned him against meddling with medicine in future, The prisoner said he would take his Lordship's advice, and was discharged. •