The Cotton Factory Times. — 1894-10-05 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

THE ACCRINGTON TRAGEDY. The Mother at the Police Court.  At Accrington Town Hall, on Tuesday, Alice Ann Farrar, the wife of a yarn presser, who is alleged to have attempted the lives of her three children as well as her own life on September 18th, was brought up on a charge of wilful murder. All three children, it will be remembered, were found in bed with their throats cut, and the mother herself was discovered lying across the same bed with several wounds in her own throat. The eldest child, a girl seven years old was then dead, but the other two recovered under medical treatment. The court was crowded, principally with women, and outside the Town Hall a large concourse of people had assembled in the hope of getting a view of the prisoner on her removal from Preston. She reached the adjoining police-station in a cab, and was looking very pale and in great distress. She sat in court by the side of a female warder, and Mrs. Heaton, a friend of her husband, and relatives sat near at hand, and when the distressed woman entered the court there was much weeping among them. Mr. A. H. Aitken, who prosecuted on behalf of the Treasury, spoke of the gruesome details he had to place before the bench, and he added that the family into which so much sorrow had been brought was known as a respectable peaceable household, and it was impossible to conceive how the prisoner could have committed the sad act without some extraordinary influence having suddenly come over her.  The first witness was Stephen Jackson, stone. mason, who lived next door. He spoke to hearing cries from Farrar's house early on the eventful morning, and to his knocking at the wall. He heard the voice of one of the children saying, "Mother, do give over," and the crying ceased for a time. The prisoner, when asked if she had anything to ask witness, stared about her in a dazed sort of way, and then fainted. A bottle containing water was promptly handed to where she sat, and she was quickly brought round with the assistance of her female attendants. The nest witness was the wife of Jackson, who corroborated her husband's statement as to the noise and to their knocking at the wall.  The neighbours gave the prisoner an excellent character. She was of a quiet disposition, fond of her children, and a good housewife. Last April she was ailing, and had to be attended by a medical man. She had deeply mourned the loss of her infant son, and frequently referred to her troubles. She had been low-spirited, and on the evening prior to the tragedy she complained of acute pains in her head.  The medical evidence showed that the eldest girl had been dead about two hours when discovered. The prisoner had a wound in her throat two inches long, and other wounds, all self-inflicted. In answer to Dr. Geddie, the prisoner said she had killed her children because she was afraid someone would take them from her. Dr. Geddie had no doubt the prisoner was insane and quite unaccountable for her actions. Dr. Cowie agreed as to the state of the prisoner's mind. The House Surgeon of the Blackburn Infirmary deposed that the younger children were improving, but the youngest one was still very weak. Unless something unlooked for intervened they would both recover. The Chief Constable spoke to an interview between the prisoner and her husband at the police station. The husband asked, "What made you do this ?" and she replied, " I could not help it."  The prisoner was committed for trial at the Manchester A.ssizes on the charge of wilful murder.  pe ***el 1 • ••• • . .• • . "• 0, r%