Widnes Examiner. — 1898-12-16 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

TERRIBLE OUTRAGE AT ST. HELENS. A GIRL MURDERED.  It was in the district surrounding Park-road, Parr, that great excitement and indignation prevailed on Sunday when it gradually leaked out that early in the merning the body of a little girl named Sarah Flaherty, of 6, Black Horse-street, had been fouud lying dead in a field behind Park-road, amid surroundings which indicated that the girl had not only been the victim of a terrible outrage, but bad subsequently been done to death by suffocation. The ghastly discovery was made by a man named Greenall, residing in Lathom-street, and inquiries and investigations fully confirmed the worst fears as to the horrible nature (31' the crime, which had bean perpetrated during the preceding night. It appears that the little girl Flaherty,who would have been seven years of age next April, left her parents' houe on Saturday night to visit the home of her uncle, Mr. Peter Barker, residing in Parkroad—a distance of about 150 yards away. The child had often gone thither to play with her cousins, and she reached there all right about six , o'clock. She remained for about three hours,when, on the advice of her brother Tom, a lad of 17 years rof age, she started to walk home. Park-road is one of the main, populous thoroughfares leading into the town from the Haydock and Parr districts, and particularly on Saturday night lis much frequented, and is in no sense a quiet or llonely-street. But, after leaving her uncle's house, 1 the little girl does not seem to have been again seen alive, except by her cruel murderer, and all , trace of her subsequent movements is for the present shrouded in mystery. As the girl did not arrive home the parents made inquiries from several neighbours, but as she had several times stayed overnight at her uncle's and her grandparents' houses very little anxiety was felt as to her safety. It was about eight o'clock on Sunday morning that Thomas Greenall, a collier, of Lathom-street, was : sauntering through the field when he saw the body ,of a child lying in a corner, at the farthest point from the backs of the houses in Park-road. Seeing that the child was dead and cold he at once gave an alarm, and it was early ascertained that the little girl was Sarah Flaherty. The police and parents were informed of the discovery, and the'father on visiting the spot, was horrified to find that the rumour which had reached him that it was his daughter was only too well founded. The father carried the body home, but shortly afterwards the Ipolice authorities had it remoied to the mortuary at the Town Hall pending a post-mortem examination and the coroner's inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the case. The field is situated behind the houses in Parkroad, and was formerly used as a football ground by the old Park-road Association Club. It is currounded by a chemical waste-heap " wall," broken down and dilapidated in many places, and was practically open to any one and everyone. In the meantime Chief Constable Wood and the officers under him instituted the closest inquiries and search, but up to a late hour on Sunday night no arrest in connection with the terrible affair had been effected. There is plenty of grass growing at the soot where the body was found, and there are no traces of any struggle. It is not known whether the crime was committed there, or whether the little victim met her fate elsewhere, and that her lifeless body was placed where it was found in order to add to the mystery surrounding her death. On Sunday afternoon an outline of the facts was communicated to the county coroner, who immediately ordered a post-mortem examination of the body, and this was made by Drs. Reid and Masson later in the day. Though the authorities decline to state the result of the examination,it is stated on reliable authority that the little girl was shockingly outraged, and that her death was due to suffocation.