Widnes Examiner. — 1882-10-07 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AT WIDNES.  THE WOMAN BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES. A woman named Mary EliZl Brown was brought up at the Widnes Police Court, on Thursday, before Messrs. Holbrook Gaskell, junr., and John Brock, charged with attempting to commit suicide by cutting her throat with a carving knife on the 14th August. Mr. Husband appeared on behalf of the prisoner.—Jane Lonsdale deposed: lam a domestic servant for Mr. Davies at the Stanley AVMs. I remember the 14th August. I was working in the house on that day. I saw the prisoner walking about. About ten o'clock at night Mr. Davies got his supper in the bar, and while he was ; getting it the prisoner served the customers. About five minutes afterwards the prisoner went upstairs to her own bedroom. I was upstairs, I had gone before her. She trild me to go to hed and I went into my bedroom. Ten minutes afterwards, in consequence of hearing a noise, I went into the prisoner's bedroom with a light, and I found her in the bed undressed bleeding from the throat, and she was covered with blood. She could not speak. I saw the cut throat the following day. I did not see any instrument and don't know how the wound was made. She has been confined to her bed up to a week ago, and she left the house yesterday.—By Mr. Husband: I have been at the place nine months and have noticed her acting queerly, not like a sensible woman. I know she had brain fever a little time back. She was acting queerly the day the wound was caused—By Inspector Barnett: I have acted under the prisoner's instructions since I have been there, but she has not been able of late to give me instructions.—Dr. O'Keeffe said :—On the 14th of August, about a quarter to eleven at night, I was called to the Stanley Arms, a public-house in Lugsdale-road, Widnes. When I got there the prisoner was in bed. I noticed the upper portion of her chest and chemise covered with blood. I examined her and found a transverse wound on the throat ' and neck from four to five inches in length. It was bleeding copiously, and the air from the lungs was coming rapidly through it, so strong that it would blow out a candle, The windpipe was almost cut through. She was completely unconscious, and almost in a dying state, and she would have been dead in two or three minutes if a doctor had not been called in. I stitched up the windpipe and wound and dressed them, and have attended her almost daily ever since until a week ago. She is in a very weak state still, and needs to take care of herself, but is out of danger so far as the wound is concerned. The wound must have been caused by some sharp instrument. I searched the prisoner's bedroom, and my assistant found an ordinary carving knife which was besmeared with blood on the bed. A great deal of force must have been used to inflict the wound, as the edge of the knife was not very sharp. The prisoner has since expressed her regret to me that she ever committed the act —By Mr. Husband: I attended the prisoner when she had brain fever in January and February. I have been called in several times, and have noticed that the prisoner has been peculiar at times since. I have been called in and found her suffering from aberration of mind, attributable to her former illness.—By Inspector Barnett: She was an excitab!e woman, and after the fits of excitement passed she was in a perfectly rational state.—lnspector Barnett said: I am inspector of police at Widnes. About 20 to 11 at night on the 14th August last, I was passing down Lugsdale-road, Widnes, and from what was said to me I went to the Stanley Arms and found the prisoner up in her bedroom, undressed.