The Sun. — 1850-08-14 (London, England)

COLERIDGE.) henry Hillier, alias Henry Axford, was indicted for the wilful murder of Thomas George, at Nunney, on the 3d of April, by cutting him on the throat with a knife. Mr. Phinn and Mr. Everett were counsel for the prosecution, and Mr. Edwards defended the prisoner. The only mode of making this case understood is by a narrative of the facts, as the case only rested upon circumstantial evidence. It will first be necessary to state the facts under which the body of the deceased was found ; secondly, the circumstances attaching themselves to the prttoncr about pthriesot o indicating t h the murder; the and, nirnere, motive thirdly, he prisonerexpressions for 0 f the wishing to get rid of the decased. The deceased was a lad shout 17 years of age, and he lived with his parents at Nanney, near Frome. He was in the habit of working fur Messrs. Hoddinot, for whom also the prisoner worked. The prisoner also lived near. On the night of the 3d of April the deceased left his work with his father about seven o'clock. The prisoner left about the same time. The deceased went home, and having washed and dressed himself, as was his habit, he went out, and he was heard talking to the prisoner and some other persons in the shed adjoining the house of the father of the deceased. He was seen there up to eight o'clock. A little after eight the deceased was seen passing over the bridge which was between the house of the prisoner and that of the father of the deceased, and the prisoner was seen looking in the direction in which the deceased was going; that was the lust time the dec•mssed W 33 seen alive. The mother of the deceased sat up for him, and about five o'clock in the morning she became co uneasy that she awoke her husband, and begged him to go and look after their son. The husband got up and went to the cart-shed, and upon going in he saw the body of some person reclining on the left side. The head was bent under the shoulder, and the face was so much covered with blood that he could not recognise whose body it was. He rushed out, and at that early hour in the morning he saw the prisoner standing at his door completely dressed. He called to the prisoner to come to him. He came and went into the shed, and at once recognised the body, and exclaimed, " Poor Tom has cut his throat at last." The body was brought out on a hurdle on which it was found lying, and it WAS found that the head had nearly been severed from the body by a wound across the throat. In the course of the day the body was washed, and on the sth an inquest was held; but it was to be regretted that the coroner would not allow any surgical investigation, and the jury came to no verdict ac all. On the 7th the surgeons were called in to look at the body, and they found the gullet and windpipe cut completely through, and they discovered that there had been two cuts on the throat; that there was first a stab, and then a cut, and they said it was quite impossible that the person who inflicted the first cut could have inflicted the second—that is, under the supposition that it was suicide. The cuts were so neck. They also fund a wound on the temple, which violent that the knife scraped the bone at the back of the had fractured the skull, and which must have been given before the throat was cut. The smallelothes and waistcoat were open. On the right-hand pocket were the marks of three bloody fingers, and on the loft-hand pocket also were the marks of blood, rA if done by the hand. There was no blood on the hands of the deceased, and the smockfrock was pulled close down. The surgewis were of opinion that the deceased met his death from the violence of cut, the father, thinking, as some other person, and not from his own band. At the time the body was brought la&cl been suggested by the prisoner, that the boy had committed suicide, was anxious to find the instrument with which it was done, and the prisoner found the knife of the deceased near the spot where the body was found. From a superstitious idea this knife was first put in the coffin that it might 11,1 t cut any more throats, and the blade was broken. The prisoner and the deceased and other persons had been in the habit cf occasionally sleeping about the outhouses of the farm, and that night the prisoner saw a man of the name of Whittaker, who worked for Messrs. Hoddinot, and who c:oxte to his heuso that evening to wait for his master'l, horse, tmd