The Sun. — 1850-09-16 (London, England)

SHOCKING MURDER IN ESSEX. R,MECIID, FRIDAY. --An ii ee; to-day on the body of a female child, four :y ears of age, named Elizabeth Flail, whose throat was cut by her own mother on Wednesday. Mr. Thwnes, from the office of Mr. Smith, 15, Wilmington-square, London, attended to watch the proceedings on the part of the accused, and objected to the evidence being taken in her absence, of which the coroner took a note, and reserved the point. The following evidence was given : Toomas Young, 10 years old, sworn, said, at halfpast four on Wednesday afternoon I was close to Mrs. Flail's door, in Nelson-place. I saw the chili go in at the back door. I saw that Mrs. Phil was th-n sitting upon a chair. I saw her take up a razor from the table, and heard her call the child to her, and take the child up in her lap and cut the child across the throat,from the right ear round to the left. She then chucked the child up nearly as high as the ceiling, and rolled it down again upon the floor, under the sofa. She then chucked the razor at the child, and went and sat down on the sofa. There was no blind to the window. When the child was first thrown up she rolled down under the sofa. She pulled the child from under the sofa, and took it up a second time and threw it up again to the ceiling, and then it rolled behind the door. When she chucked the razor at the child she took it from the chair. After she had killed the child she opened the front door and said " Let's loose the stink out." Eliza Rich, wife of John Rich, of the Barrackground—l live in front of Nelson-place, fronting to the road. On Wednesday evening, about half-past four, I was sitting in-doors, and heard Mrs. James make alarm. I ran out and she said to me—" Oh, Mrs. Flail has murdered Margaret." We both went together to Airs. Flail's house. I then saw the child lying between the two doors on the floor, with its throat cut. I saw the razor on the floor. I said to Mrs. Flail, " On, Mrs. Flail, what have you been doing ? " She made me no answer. I then ran out. The child was quite dead. When we got to the house she was sitting on the sofa doing nothing. There was a great pool of blood lying near the child. She was very fond of the child. She has not been well for a fortnight. When I spoke to she looked very wild. Her eyes looked very fierce. She kept looking at the child, and never took her eyes off it ; and when I questioned her she did not seem to understand or notice it at all. I live close by, and have had frequent opportunities of seeing her ondnees for the child, which was very great. I never knew of her ill-using the child. Mr. John William Potter, surgeon, Roinford, said, on Wednesday last a woman came to me and said that Mrs. Plail had cut her child's throat. I went and examined the child. It was a deep clean cut wound in the throe, four inches across ; it was nearly from ear to ear, and I should think two inches deep. All the vessels of the throat were severed. It was such a wound as would be inflicted by a razor, or some sharp instrument. Cross-examined by Mr. Downes—l had attended the mother for a low state of hypochondriacism from the 2d of September down to the day of the murder. She was in a very low state. Had disordered liver, which will produce lowness and depression. After the murder I felt her pulse, and found it about 120. She was very excited. I asked her if she felt any pain, and she put her hand to her head on the top. She made me no answer. The CORONER, in summing up, stated that the province of the jury was to ascertain and say how the child came by her death—that there was no doubt Mrs. Pail committed the act. He then directed the jury to find a verdict without reference to the state of mind. That was a question for the jury at the trial, and not for the present jury. The jury returned the following verdict :—"We find that the child Margaret Flail was killed by the hand of its own mother, Esther Plaid "—one juryman dissenting out of thirteen.