The Sun. — 1822-09-27 (London, England)

BRUTAL OUTRAGE AND MURDER.  On. Tuesday last an Inquest was taken at the Bull public-house, at Birling, before J. N. DUDLOW, Esq., Coroner, on view of the body of Ellen M'Carthy, a poor old woman, aged sixty-three, who was most cruelly and inhumanly beat and abused by a set of young men, on the evening of the Sunday preceding, and from which barbarous treatment she survived but a few hours. Our confined limits preclude us from giving a lengthened detail of this atrocious transaction, the circumstances attending which make us blush for our country, and but ill accord with that mild and gentle spirit by which we conceive ourselves animated. —From the evidence adduced on the Inquest, it appeared that the deceased and her husband had been drinking at the Bull public-house on Sunday afternoon, and on their return to Mr. 11ddison's (where they were hopping, and had been so employed for the last twenty years), a short distance from the public-house, they observed fifteen or sixteen young men standing by the stream. They had also been drinking at the public-house, and had declared that they would have a row with the deceased and her husband, who, when they approached them, were seized by these fellows ; the former was knocked down in the hedge and struck on her temples, they then kicked her and hit her with their fists. While this was going 'on, some of them took the old man up bodily, and carried him and threw him into a ditch some distance off, saying—" We have done for the old —, and we will now do as we like with the old They continued to abuse the poor old woman, and proceeded to acts too horrible and disgusting to name. At this juncture a man named Flint, who also worked for Mr. Addison, came along, and the fellows made off. He took the old man out of the ditch ; the deceased he found lying in the road quite senseless and speechless. The old man took her up, and endeavoured to carry her home, but his strength failed him ; he laid her in a hedge in a field adjoining, where she expired a few hours afterwards. He knew one of the men who was ring-leaders in the affair, his name he said was Adds, but none of the rest he could recognize. The deceased, it appeared, at ' the commencement of the transaction, was somewhat in liquor, but able to proceed from the public:house homeward without any assistance. Mr. G. Perfect, surgeon, who examined the body of the deceased, deposed that she had several-bruises about the body and head. He opened the head, and-found that the scalp was detached from the bone in several places, particularly on each temple, and over the left eye, from the effects of external violence. On removing part of the skull, he found nearly half a pound of coagulated blood upon the .brain, from a rupture of the principal blood vessel, which was the cause of deceased's death. She died from apoplexy, but whether the rupture of the blood-vessel was occasioned from intoxication, or from any violence or bruises which she received, lie could not positively say. He thought the external violence which caused the bruises was sufficient to rupture the vessel. After the evidence had been gone through, the Coroner proceeded to address the Jury, who, after some deliberation, pronounced a verdict— Wilful Murder against Thomas Adds, and other persons unknown. Adds has since been taken, and committed to the county gaol, under the Coroner's warrant ; the others have for the present eluded the hand of justice.— ( Maidstone Journal. )