Star. — 1820-03-14 (London, England)

ASSIZES.  .  TOM MARCH io.• Wm. Booth, WM. Garrett, and Bodantiu Bower, were charged with the murder of Thomas Parkiii, gamekeeper to J. A. STUART WORTLEY, Esq. M. P. by shooting him with a loaded gun. Joseph Parkin was employed by Ms. Wortley to look after his game. On the night of the 9th of October last, witness and Thomas Parkin were out looking after poachers : about four o'clock in the morning they saw four men; witness knew all of them. When they met, Thomas Parkin laid his hand upon the shoulder of IVm. Garrett, and said, " What! my lad, is• it you ?" He passed the rwo Bowers', without speaking to them ; but when he came to. the foul th man, c. Booth, he said, " What ! barn, thou hast got a gun this morning." The deceased then placed his hand on the outside of Booth's coat pocket, and observed that he had got his pocket full of snares used for the destruction of hares. Booth, with an oath, asked if he meant to rob him ; and, raising his gun to his shoulder, presented it, and fired the contents through the body of the deceased, who fell, exclaiming, " 0, I am shot !" The instant he fell, the prisoners fell upon the witness: Booth struck him on the head and shoulder with • the butt-end of his gum. One of the men said, " Hit him, hit him ;' or " Stick him, stick him." At this moment he heard the report of a gun, fired by Thomas Parkin, and he (Joseph Parkin) wits able to disengage himself from the men with whom he had been struggling : he ran to a village for assistance, but found Thomas Parkin gone; he afterwards found him in a cottage 4te4r the place. He was laid, wounded, upon a bed ;• he was stint quite throitgh the body. He died on the following Monday, at six o'clock in the afternoon. In addition to this, the declaration of the deceased, and a deposition taken by the surgeon and phys;cian who attended him, were given in evidence. Ile denied having committed any assault upon the prisoners, or of being engaged in any struggle with them. He also stated, that heating some of the men cry out " Stick him !" he turned himself on his side, and fired his piece. • . .  The Jury, without retie ins, found all the prisoners Guilty ; and his Lordship immediately passed sentence of death upon them, and ordered them to be execu:ed.  P. Piest was charged with a rape on the person of Margaret Rodwell.—The prosecutrix stated, that on Friday, the 19th of Novem her last, in the afternoon, the prisoner came to her house, which was a lore one, and sat down by the tire-side, and on the v. itness going near him, he pulled her down upon his knee, and asked her to give him- a kiss : this she refused, saying he had a wife. of his own, and she had a husband. The prisoner, notwithstAnding this repulse, proceeded to, take liberties with her, and after the utmost resistance on her part, effected the outrage imputed to him in the indictment. She, on her cross-examination, admitted that nine weeks before the period of which she had been speaking, she had been ravished before by the prisoner, in a chamber of her house, and that after the perpetration of this offence, he remained in the house till her husband returned, and that she made no complaint to him or any other person of the injury she had then received. The Learned Judge here stopped the case, and said he thought it unnecessary to enter further into its investigation, as it was impossible that the Jury,could safely give credit to a witness who had conducted herself in the manner she stated herself to have done. The Jury returned a verdict of—Not Guilty.