Glasgow Courier. — 1847-11-27 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

THE POISONING AT HACKNEY. On Thursday, the 18th inst., an inquiry was resumed for the sixth time, before Mr. Baker, at the Committee Room, Church Street, Hackney, as to the death of Mr. Samuel Nelme, a gentleman of fortune, lately resident in Grove Place, Hackney. Mr. Ballantine attended as before on behalf of the grandson of the deceased, William Allnutt, who stands committed on a charge of having stolen the deceased's gold watch and other property. Mrs. Allnutt, the daughter of the deceased, and mother of William Allnutt, deposed to her having lived with her father and motherin-law since the death of her husband, last September two years. Her third son, William Allnutt, lived with them. For eight or nine months witness had observed a great deviation on his part from a proper line of conduct. She could make no impression upon him as upon her other children. In September last he bought a pistol with percussion caps and powder. He told witness that a man whom he had met in the street had persuaded him to purchase it. When the deceased was fired at in his garden the boy was charged with it, but he said that he had not then got the pistol; that he had given it the day before to the man who advised ' him to buy it. The pistol was subsequently found wrapped up, lying among the grass in the garden. Witness believed that her I son was aware of the deadly properties of arsenic, and that he I could have obtained access to the bureau in which deceased kept I some of that poison. 'Witness further described her father's first falling sick after taking some gruel, and corroborated at length the evidence given by her mother-in-law at the last sating of the jury, touching the loss of the sovereigns before the death of the deceased, and the watch and other property after that event. Mrs. Allnutt added that her son had been subject to walking in his sleep, and he sometimes complained of hearing voices in his head. In reply to Mr. Ballantiue, witness said her husband died two years last September, having been subject for two years previously to epileptic fits. He was never under restraint, but he died quite insane. In answer to a juror, Mrs. Allnutt said she did not suspect any of the deceased's servants to have administered arsenic to her father. Believed her son had said he thought his grandfather would die suddenly. Mr. Superintendent Walker being recalled, said: When 1 took the boy, William Allnutt, into custody, on a charge of stealing the watch, he said "Pray, forgive me—l was tempted to do it." lacked him who had temptedhim. Ile suid, no person: some voice had appeared to him, and said, "do it, do it, you will never be found out." The coroner charged the jury on the whole case, commenting at length on the circumstances and quoting from "Ray's Medical Jurisprudence" various eases Of moral mania, where a propensity to destroy formed an unaccountable desire even in young persons, lie did not think, looking at all the evidence, there could be much doubt that the aisenic had been mixed with the sugar by the boy William Allnutt. After reading over the whole of the evidence, the jury, after half an hour's consideration, returned into court with the following verdict:—" We, the jury, are unanimously of opinion that the late Mr. Samuel Nelme came by his death by partaking of arsenic in sugar, which arsenic had been feloniously mixed therein by W. N. Allnutt, against whom we find a verdict of Wilful Murder."