The Sun. — 1851-01-17 (London, England)

LAMBETH.  John Simpson and Frederick Kennester, the latter a burglar and thit f, and the toraer ►he associate of thieves, were placed at the bar, before Mr. Elliott, on a charge of attempting to break into Herculee-hall, the residence of Mr. Brookes, a stirch manufacturer.  The prisoners were further charged with breaking into the premises of Messrs. Buck and Wootton, stationers in Mount-street, Lambeth, on Monday morning last, but having been detected they made a hasty retreat, taking only a sixpence belonging to one of the female servants.  From tie evidence It appeared that at about half-past three o'clock on that morning Mr. Brookes was awoke by Mrs. Brookes, who had heard a noise down stairs, and who mentioned her suspicions that there were thieves on the premises. On getting out of bed and going to the window Mr. Brookes saw two men on the back lawn, one of whom was in the act of opening the back drawing-room window. Ile (Mr. Brookes) instantly gave an alarm, upon which both the men ran across the lawn, and, it being a bright moonlight morning, he observed the figures of both men, and they corresponded in every respect with those of the prisoners. Mr. Flexmore, the clown at the Princess's Theatre, and who is next-door neighbour to Mr.Brookes, on hearing the alarm of " Thieves !" and " Police!" instantly sprang a rattle, and in a very few minutes several constables were on the spot. On their arrival they saw the prisoner Simpson descend by a ladder from the first-floor of a house in the course of erection in York-place adjoining the premises of the prosecutor, and on searching the cellar of the building the officers found the other prisoner, Kennester, huddled up among some shavings, with a dark lantern close to him, and some lucifer matches on his person. Mr. Buck, of the firm of Buck and Wootton, 33, Mount-street, stationers. and also the keepers of the post-office and money-order-office, stated, that on Monday morning last the premises of himself and partner were burglariously entered by the thieves forcing open a back door. Having to force a second door before they could reach that pan of the premises which it was their object to arrive at, and which h%d evidently offered con siderable resistance, they made sufficient noise to disturb some members of the family, and had it not been for the extreme darkness at the time, they would have in their retreat received that which they little calculated on. In the morning, after the prisoners had been secured, and while at the station-house, Sergeant Goff brought the boots of both to his (Mr. Buck's) house. and on comparing them with the footmarks left in his garden, and the garden of his neighbour, Mr. Forster, they fitted so exactly that he had no doubt whatever the prisoners were two out of three persons who had burglariously entered his premises. Mr. Buck added that in the month of May, 1849, his premises had been entered by thieves, who carried away postage stamps, cash, and other property to the amount of over 2001., and since that time he hed kept a blunderbuss and other firearms lea-led in the house, and had it not been for the extreme darkness of the morning, as he had before stated, the men would have received the contents of some of them.  At the station-house the prisoners were placed in separate cells, and in the course of the morning Kennester was heard to ask Simpson if they (the police) had taken anything from him, and he replied that they had taken his boots. Kennester said that they had taken his also, and that it was a " D-1 bad job." Evidence was given of the fact of the prisoner Kennester having been repeatedly in custody, and convicted of the most desperate robberies. It was also said that on one occasion he and Wood, the young fellow who was committed from this court on the day before for the murderous assault on Mr. Wigg, were both convicted of an attempt to break into a dwelling-house, and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. The prisoners were fully committed for trial on the charge of breaking into the house of Mr. Brookes, as it appeared they succeeded in forcing open the shutters of tho back drawing-room, which had been left secure on the family retiring to rest at eleven o'clock on the night before.