Widnes Examiner. — 1904-09-03 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.  Mrs. Ellen Burndred, of 33, South John street, Parr, who figured so prominently last week in connection with the St. Helens sensation, was brought before the magistrates on Monday on remand, charged with attempted suicide. The previous week-end St. Helens was thrown into a state of great excitement by the exhumation of the body of a girl who had lived with Mrs. Burndred, and the excitement was greatly increased when it was stated that Mrs. Burndred had attempted to drown herself. The facts laid before the coroner's jury on Monday week were to the effect that the custody of a girl named Sarah Ann Jones had been entrusted to Mrs. Burndred by the guardians in August, 1901. In April of this year the girl went back to the workhouse, but returned to Mrs. Burndred in June last. The girl,who,it is alleged, had been insured in 1901 for £2O 125., died, after ashort illness, on the 7th inst. and was buried on the 11th. Her body was disinterred by the police late on Saturday, the 20th inst., and a post-mortem was carried out the next day by a number of doctors. Mrs. Burndred had herself lost five of her children, but she seemed a respectable woman, and attended the Salvation Army meetings, though she was not, as has been erroneously stated in some quarters, officially connected with or a member of thearmy. Early on Sunday morning the 21st,Mrg. Burndred was rescued from a deep pool of water near Tickle's Brickworks, at Parr. and she was consequently locked up. At the police court she was charged on the following Monday with this offence, and was remanded to gaol for a week, notwithstanding the application by her solicitor, Mr. 11. L. Riley, for bail. The inquest on Sarah Ann Jones has been adjourned to September 12. pending the result of the analysis of the organ. 3 of the girl's body. The police court was crowded yesterday, and a lot of people bad to be refused admission. Mrs. Burndred appeared in a nervous condition when she stood up in the dock. Chief Constable Wood asked for the woman to be remanded in custody to Walton Gaol until next Monday. Mr. Riley made a strong claim for the right of Mrs. Burndred to be admitted to bail. There was only one charge against her, and the bench could only take cor,nisance of it. It was uot because the bench had read in the papers that there was a possibility of some other charge being laid against her that they should allow these proceedings to hang over her head in that manner, when they could be concluded in half-an-hour. That consideration was not good ground for them to do indirectly what they could not do directly—viz., to deprive her of her liberty. There was no reason on earth why that charge of attempted suicide should not be beard and dealt with, either by dismissing her or sending her for trial. Benches of magistrates throughout the country recognised the futility and the absurdity of trying to punish people far something which, immediately after the period of punishment had expired, they could do again unless their mind and disposition had undergone some great change. He suggested that the bench might dismiss her with a caution. The magistrates remanded Mrs. Burndred in custody.