The Sun. — 1856-07-14 (London, England)

WOP,SHIP-STREET. —EXTRAORDINARY CASE OT ALITGTM BDUCTION. —Mr. John Wca'de:v, an eTitensive hiri4% uLiinufacturer attended before Mr, D'Eyncourt to request his advice and assistance under the following remarkable circum stances.  The applicant stated that he was anxious to communical.e to the magistrate the particulars of an outrage of a very mysterious and aggravated character, to which one of his apprentices, who now accompanied him, had been subjected. He should leave the lad to make his own statement of the facts, afer premising that ha had been nearly five years in his service, and had always conducted himself in the most exemplary manner, having never absented himself from home for a single hour, nor been detected in an untruth during the whole of that  period. The apprentice, a frank, intellig,nt•looking youth, about 16 years of age, was then called into the witness. box, and entered into the following extraordinary narrative :—On Wednesday last I was passing through Whitechapel, on an errand for my master, at f tur o'clock in the afternoon, when a gentleman with a bushy heard and mustachios drove up to the door of one of the shop., and asked me to mind his horse and chaise while he w-nt in to make a purchase: I agreed to do so, and on coming back in a few minutes, the gentleman said that he had no silver about him, and that I had better step int, the chaise, as he had to call at the corner of Aldgate, where he would get change and give me a shilling for my trouble. I made co objection, as I had to pass that way, and got into the chaise with bim ; but we had only gone a little way, when he told me he was a dealer in perfumery, and asked me if I liked scents, at the same time pulling out a small bottle, which he held to my nose, and I instantly lost my senses. I must have continued several hours in that state, for it was quite dark when I came to, and found myself in the hands of two men who were dragging me out of the chaise in a solitary road in the country. On calling out for help, one of the men threatened to kill me if I made the least noise, and grasped me by the throat, but I bit him in the band, and kicked and struggled till I got free from him, and started off as fast I could run. I heard the men running after me for some distance, but managed to keep ahead of them till I got to a dry ditch, in which I concealed my,,elf, and remained there till daylight. I then crept back into the road, finding that the men were gone, but felt so faint and exhausted that I got into a field where I slept for several hours. On waking up I was told by some men who were working in the field that it was more than six miles on the other side of Highgate ; but they directed me the way home, on reaching which I informed my master of everything that had taken place. In answer to a question from the magistrate; it was intimated by the master that the lad was evidently in a state of extreme prostration and excitement on his return home about four o'clock on Thursday afternoon, when he minutely described the particulars of the violence which had been practised towards him in strict accordance with his present statement. Mr. D'Eyncourt—lt is certainly a most extraordinary story, and I am at a loss to conceive any adequate motive for the perpetration of such an outrage. The master—l can only say from my intimate knowledge of his character, that I believe the boy to be utterly incapable of deception, and your worship may probably remember a similar case which occurred a few years ago, when a lad was kidnapped for a supposed infamous purpose, under precisely similar circumstances, and was afterwards found murdered in a ditch in the neighbourhood of Acton. Mr. D'Eyncourt said that he perfectly recollected the incident referred to, and he believed that the persons who had been guilty of the atrocity had never been brought to justice. He should advise Mr. Weakley immediately to place the matter in the hands of the police. who would adopt the necessary means for the discovery and apprehension of the parties who had committed the alleged outrage.