The Sun. — 1845-04-14 (London, England)

MURDER OF A CHILD AT HAMPSTEAD. On Saturday afternoon a jury was ernpannelled before Mr. T. Wakley, at the Yorkshire Grey Tavern, Hampstead, in the same room in which the inquest was held on the late Mr. Delarue, to inquire into the death of a male child. The jury comprised several of the gentlemen who were on the inquest above referred to. Police-constable Alexander Mackay, 197 S, stated that about half-past five o'clock in the morning of the 7th inst., he was on duty in Hampstead-road, near Sinton's nursery, between Haverstock-terrace and the Load of Hay, and in a ditch passing along the edge of the nursery and the main road, he discovered the body of the deceased. It was perfectly dressed in the clothes produced to the jury. They consisted of the usual children's clothing, of the finest texture. The flannel was quite new, and edged with silk. The under clothing was of fine cambric, and the cap had a rich lace border. The body was wrapped in two diaper towels, and sown up in an old dark green child's cloak. He conveyed the body to the station-house, where it was seen by the surgeon. Mr. Daniel Gower, surgeon, of Hampstead, deposed that when he first saw the deceased its nose was much flattened, and there was a mucous issuing from the mouth and nostrils. He had since made a post moltern examination. The umbilical cord had been properly tied, and its appearance, together with other circumstances, indicated that it had lived several days. The lungs oated, and there was every other symptom to prove this. There was no mark of violence on the person, or any poison in the stomach. The brain presented a very vascular appearance, and there was a good deal of fluid blood on its surface. He was decidedly of opinion that the deceased had died from some kind of suffocation, and, from the mucous issuing from the mouth and nostrils, it was his his opinion that the suffocation was by drowning. The CORONER said, after this evidence, he thought there could not be a doubt upon the mind of any one that the case was one of wilful murder, although they had no proof whatever of who the parties were that committed it. The jury acquiesced, and at once returned a verdict of " Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown."  Mr. WAKLEY then remarked he was in the Court of the Old Bailey on Friday night, and heard Hocker's statement and the sentence passed upon him, and he could assure the jury that Rocker exhibited all the coolness he displayed when in that room at the inquest; indeed he was as unmoved as the table before him. The judge was ten thousand times more moved than Hooker was. He seemed completely bound up in vanity, but he hoped the sense of his awful situation would soon have the effect of removing the film from his eyes, and enable him to see his position more clearly than he at present appeared to do. He acknowledged the writing of the letter signed " Caroline," and from the very outset of the case he believed he had done so. A juror remarked that Hocker's statement with respect to his covering himself with blood in a slaughterhouse at Hampstead was absurd. There was no slaughter-house that was not kept under lock and key.