The Potteries Examiner : — 1872-12-07 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

STAFFORDSHIRE WINTER ASSIZES.  THITRADAT. ALLEGED CHILD MTJEDER AT KINVIE. Ann Edwards (29), charwoman, was indicted for the . _ . .  wilful murder of her infant female child, on the 4th August, at the parish of Kisser. The Hon, Evelyn Ashley conducted the prosecution, and, by direction of the Judge, the prisoner was defended by Mr. Pigott.— The first witness called was Mrs. Sarah Fletcher, who said that the accused was her niece, and was a single woman. On the 4th of August she was living with witness as a domestic servant, having been in her employ three years. On the day named the prisoner cornplainest of being unwell, and shortly before five o'clock went out of the house without saying where she was going. Souse little time afterwards, hearing her own daughter calling, she went to a closet in the garden, and there she saw a child's foot protruding from the soil. Witness then fetched a pair of tongs and removed the I body, which, with the head, was embedded in the re`use. She observed several cuts upon the body of the child. As FOOD as she recovered from the shock of finding the child, she removed it to the hones. Two hours afterwards she saw the prisoner in the house, and noticed that her clothes were soiled, and witness said to her, "Are you not sorry for what you have done?" to Which she replied, "'lake it away; I don't want it." Witness gave the child some nourishment before it died, which hsppened in about ten hours after it'was discovered. She sent for a neighbour named Hughes Ino aft:r the atflar happened.  Mr. Thomas HolyoakV. surgeon, said that on the day named he was called int. Mrs. Fletcher's at about eight o'clock. He then saw a child, which had apparently been born only a few hours. It was a seven months child. There were four incised wounds on the right side of the head, and several other contused wounds in various parts of the body, the most serious one being behind the ear. He was of opinion that the injuries had been caused by some instrument both blunt and sharp. He ordered the child to have nourishment, and called the neat day, when be found that the child was dead. He saw Ann Edwards, the accused, and she admitted that the child was herF.ll  Mr. Pigott addressed the jury on behalf of the prisoner. He held that the accused was utterly innocent of any intention to take the life of her child, and contended that when she wan discovered in the closet, using the spade, she was endeavouring to recover the child, which he urged had been born while she was sitting on the closet, and that all the appearances deposed to by the various witnesses were consistent with this explanation. The question of the prisoner's sanity was only slightly referred to by the learned counsel, at the conclusion of whose address the Court adjourned ; and on resuming the Jury, after a moment's deliberation, returned a verdict of acquittal on the ground of the prisoner's insanity.  INDECENT Asesuur.—Henry Lunt (23), miner, was indicted for feloniously assaulting a little girl named Eliza Peva], on the 11th blarch, 1871, at Knutton, in the parish of Wolstanton. Mr. Young conducted the case for the prosecution ; Mr. Motteram defending the accused. At the direction of his lordship, prisoner was found not guilty of the graver offence, and charged with misdemeanour. The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to five years' penal servitude.