Northern Times. — 1859-01-19 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

MAN  AND HIS WIFE COMMITTED FOR MURDERING THEIR CHILD.  On Monday, Mr. Herford held an inquest at the William the Fourth public-house, Rusholme-road, on the body of a female infant, aged four days, the child of John and Charlotte Parkinson. Mrs. Elizabeth Mawdsley, of Hyde Grove, stated that on the sth instant the parents of the child engaged lodgings at her house, and afterwards entered them. About midnight on Saturday week Mrs. Parkinson was confined, mid her husband went for a surgeon. No nurse was sent for, the husband saying that he could do all that was wanted himself. The child seemed to have arrived at maturity, and several times the witness observed that it was going on remarkably well. In reply to the witness's questions, Mrs. Parkinson told her that the doctor had said the child was weak in its lungs, and would die in convulsions. On Wednesday morning the child' appeared' to be going on remarkably well, but the next morningit died. Witness questioned the parents about the death; as she found that it had died with its mouth open, andthat its lips and tongue were quite black. They replied that "it was inwardly convulsed, and that they had watched it die." The husband said, "Now; we must get it interred as soon as we can, and we must do it as a still-born child." Witness told them that they would have to bury-it in a proper manner. The husband went for a joiner-to make a coffin and on Friday Mrs. Parkinson told witness that the child' was going to be buried, and that they had got a certificate from the registrar ; and she seemed "well pleased" at it. Mr. Chas. James Rix, surgeon; said he attended Mrs. Parkinson soon after midnight ow Saturday: There had been no preparations. In reply to a'question which was put to him by somebody, and which he. thought a strange one, he told them- that the child was "likely enough to live." It had arrived at maturity. He never made any remark (as stated by Mrs. Parkinson to the former witness) about the child having convulsions, or being likely to die, or anything of the kind. On Monday the child was doing well. On Thursday Parkinson came to him, and told him that the child was dead, and asked for a certificate, which he refused to- give. He asked why he had not been sent for when the,ehild was thought likely to die ; and the man replied that-" he thought it would not have been much use." He told the husband that •an inquest must he held, and he had better go to the Coroner's office, but he seemed unwilling to do so. He made' a post-mortem examination, and found the child generally. healthy. It had died from- suffocation, and not from convulsions. The discolorations on the chin and neck might have been done during or after death. The same pressure might produce suffocation, and the appearances under the chin. Mr. E. B. Rowley, registrar of births and deaths,. said that Parkinson came- to him to register the child, but brought no medical certificate, alleging that the child was so young and premature that he did not think it worth while. He therefore registered it as " premature, and not certified." The jury returned a verdict of " Wilful murder" against John and Charlotte Parkinson, for whose committal to Kirkdale Gaol the Coroner issued his warrant. The father and mother both stated that the child had died naturally of convulsions, and described how the death occurred.