Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1881-11-05 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL FOR MURDER. A GIRL SENTENCED TO DEATH. At the Cumberlaud Winter Assiz es on Wednesday, before Mr Justice Kay, Margaret Messenger, aged 14 years, domestic servant, was charged with the wilful murder of & child named Mary Elizabeth Palliser, six months old, at Spurnstou, near Carlisle, in July last. From the evidence it appeared that the prisoner was engaged in June last by Mr. and Mrs. Palliser, a farmer and his wife, who live at Spruuston, four or five miles from Carlisle, as nurse to their children. On the morning of the 2nd July, Mr and Mrs Palliser went to Carlisle market, and they left the prisoner at Sprunston. in charge of their two children, Margaret Hodge son, aged 5 years, and the baby,Mary Elizabeth. A hired boy named Haffeu was *leo left working in a field at about 100 yards' distance from the farmhouse. While at work, about ten o'clock in the morning, Haffen heard the cry of a child, which seemed to him to come from the yard of the house, and almost at the same time he heard the elder child shout out the name of the nurse, who replied, "I'm here." Hagen though DO thing of the scream, and went on with his work. About half-pact ten, Margaret Palliser called him,and he went into a field callettLamb's Close, and he saw the prisoner and the child Margaret Palliser. Prisoner told him that a tall man without whiskers had taken away the little child, and asked Kaftan logo and look for it, He did not belie f° the story, but he went to the orchard, beyond which there is a stream, and looked, but found nothing. He then west back to his work. About ealf•past eleven be saw the prisoner coming from the direction of the well carrying the child. Steffen suspected it was dead, and called out to prisoner,'• Is it dead ?" She replied it was. He therefore brought Mrs Storey, a neighbour, who found the body on the ground in the yard, quite dead. She took it up, and found that while the face and front parts of the body were muddy, the back was quite clean. Prisoner, when asked where she found the body, said *be found it in a boggy place near the well. Mrs Storey, after using every effort to restore &ululation, went away, leaving the prisoner in charge of another neighbour. About half •pant three in the afternoon, Mr and Mrs Palliser returned from Carlisle, and to them the prisoner repeated her story, adding hat the man had a straw hat. After she had told Mrs Storey a totally different tale, to the effect that, as she was sitting on some blocks of wood near the home, she full asleep, and when she awoke the child was gone, and on going to look for it she found it near the well. Mrs Storey thereupon went to the place Indicated; and she there discovered in some boggy ground, between the well and the stream, an indentation in the shape of a child's body A stone had been removed some little distance off, and was lying close to this indentation. She also found marks of clogs leading from the house to the well. At seveu o'clock, Police superintendent Sempill inspected the place, and had casts of the footmarks taken. The prisoner subsequently said to Mr. Storey, "I will tell you. I did it myself, and nobody helped me." A post-mortem examination was held, and the doctors found that the child died of suffocation, and that there was mud in the lungs as well as the mouth. The prisoner, at the time the crime was committed, was 13 years of age. The theory of the defence was that the prisoner left the baby in charge of the other child, and during that time it had fallen down the ravine into the puddle where it was found enffocated.—Tbe Judge, in summing up the case, remarked that if this theory of the defence had been correct a stone would not have been found on the child's bead, and the only question for the jury was whether they could arrive at the conclusion that the child could in any Way have come by its death except by the act of the prisoner.— The jury, after an absence of VW minutes, de livered a verdict of guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy on account of the prisoner's youth.—The Judge, who was much affected, pronounced sentence of death, a mod painful feeling pervading the court, and mite), women sobbing aloud.  11-petition is being got up at Stockport praying for a respite for William Osman, who is sentenced to death for the murder of his:wife.