The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1908-10-24 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

END OF THE PARK BABY MURDER.  TRIAL AT CHESTER ASSIZES.  At the Chester Assizes, before Mr. Justice' Lowrance, on Wednesday, Annie McCaffrey (23), a servant, was indicted for having wilfully murdered her son John McCaffrey (alias John Caffrey), on or about September 10th.  -7171ie prisoner in a sobbing voice pleaded not guilty. Mr. Ellis Griffith, M.P., and Recorder for Birkenhead. together with Mr. Artemus Jones (instructed by Messrs. Moore and Son), appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. W. B. 1 ates (instructed. by Mr. G. F. Lees) defended the prisoner. In his opening, Mr. Griffith said that on August sth the prisoner, while an inmate of the Brownlow Hill Workhouse, Liverpool, gave birth to illegitimate twins which were afterwards named as John and Ellen (Nelly). She also had two other children with her in the institution. Her husband left her in July, 1907. and she had not seen him since. She remained in the workhouse until August 25th, when she left, accompanied by her four children. Two days later the twins were re-admitted for medical inspection, but the prisoner afterwards disappeared, leaving no address at the institution. The Union authorities, however. succeeded in tracing her, and the twins were again removed from the workhouse by her. Prior to her removal of the twins she stayed' with a woman named Walsh, of Lamb-street. Liverpool. From the workhouse the woman I went to Birkenhead, where she visited the Children's Hospital for the twins to be examined by the doctor. She asked the , doctor that the children should be admitted, but she was told that they could not be, as there was not room. She was Oven a bqkitle of medicine, and after giving the miff(' of the boy as John Kelly, she left the institution with the two children. The next thing they knew of, her was that at 11 o'clock that night she returned to Mrs. Walsh's house, where her other two children were lodged. When questioned as to what had become of the other twin child, she said he was detained *at the. workhouse as he was suffering from gastric fever. Prisoner stayed that night with Mrs. Walsh, but left the house the next morning. At six o'clock on the evening of the 11th September a girl found THE CHILD'S DEAD BODY  behind a bush in a plantation in Birkenhead Park. The child was clothed in workhouse clothes, and this enabled the police to make inquiries and trace the prisoner, she being arrested on Saturday, September 12th, at a house in Newsham-street, Liverpool. by Chief Detective Inspector Eakins. He tola the prisoner that he was making inquiries respecting the dead body of a child which had been found in the park, and she said "My God! Is it dead? It is mine. Don't tell those downstairs." On the way to the Central Police Office, Birkenhead. she said "I took the twins from the Brownlow Hill Workhouse on Thum' day at four o'clock. I went to Birkenhead about 6.30 p.m. the same day, taking the twins with me. and I walked from the boat to the Park. I put him under some trees. I am sorry I did it." She made a further statement to Inspector -Eakins and also to Mrs. Whyte, the wardress at the bridewell. The medical evidence would show conclusively that the child died as the result of being left in the park and the exposure to which he had been subjected. The child was left there at about six o'clock on the 10th, and was not found until six o'clock on the 11th. He was left only a short time before the closing of the Park fates in a plantation surrounded by iron railings, and in a spot wher it was not probable that it would be seen or heard. There was a heavy rainfall on the evening of September 10th and the early hours of September 11th, and it was undoubtedly a cold night. She also gave the-name to .the doctor at the Children's Hospital of John Kelly in order