The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1842-01-21 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF STABBING.—A SECOND OFFENCE.—A young man, named Robert Frazer—said to be second mate of whip—was yesterday-placed at the bar 1;4 the police-court, on a charge of stabbing a young woman with a clasp knife. The case derived additional interest from the fact that the prisoner had been tried at the last assizes for a similar offence in the same house. Harriet Dicks said that she was one of the servants in a seaman's lodging-house in Queen-street, kept by Mr. John Starkie, and the prisoner was a boarder there. A little before eight o'clock on Wednesday night, the prisoner, who was before in the front parlour, came into the back parlour where she was, and asked her to go out with him. She declined to do so, and directly after, while she was amusing herself with the other servant girls, she felt herself struck, on the right side under het' breast. It appeared that the witness afterwards fainted.— Bridget Ryan, another servant in the house, said the prisoner came into the room. He said he was going to fight with one of the other lodgers whom he named, and that he would have somebody's life that night. He then made a thrust with a knife at the last witness, and immediately after put out the gas, opened the window, jumped out, and escaped. He wiped the knife on his jacket after he had used it against Harriet Dicks, and threw it on the floor. The knife was produced—a common clasp-knife, such as those used by sailors, and about four inches long in the blade.— Another female, Mr. Starkie's daughter, who is married, stated that the complainant shrieked and fainted after being hit, and she (witness) took her shortly afterwards to her house, and sent for a doctor. She examined her clothes, and found them cut through, and a slight wound on the side.— Inspector Morley said he heard that a girl was stabbed, and went in pursuit of the prisoner, who had afterwards (it appeared) affected madness. He found him concealed in a cellar in Queen-street, and took to bridewell. The clothes worn by the girl at the time were produced. The gown. stays, and shift were cut through, the first coniderably. The shift and the stays were discoloured with blood.—Mr. John Ganies, M.D., said he was called to the complainant, and found a cut under the right breast, three or four lines in length, and one in depth. He dressed it. It was not dangerous.—Mr. Rushton then put several questions to Mrs. Starkie, the landlady of the lodging-house, and to several of the police-officers. From their replies, it appeared that the prisoner was the same man who was committed, on the 14th April last, to take his trial at the assizes for stabbing a girl, in the same lodging-house, named Catherine English. On that occasion the girl was at one time not expected to survive, and Mr. Rushton went to the house, and took her deposition while her life was in danger. The prisoner was brought up at the assizes, but the girl (who afterwards recovered, and is since married), as well as the other principal witnesses, appeared to have forgotten all they had said before the magistrate, some of them taking his part, so that the prisoner, though arraigned for stabbing with intent to murder, escaped with but seven days' imprisonment.—The prisoner, after being cautioned, said-he had nothing to say, and was committed for trial at the sessions.—Mr. Rushton, before the witnesses were bound over, addressed Mrs. Starkie on the subject of the former case, and cautioned her and the other witnesses against withholding their evidence, so as to defeat the ends of justice,—warning them that if they did so in the present case, their recognizances would be estreated and themselves imprisoned. They were then bound over to appear,—in the sum of £5O each.