The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1880-11-06 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

ASSIZE. NEWS.  William Distin (35), carpenter, was sentenced to death on Wednesday at the l'ristol Assizes for the murder of Emily Eliza Distin, otherwise Daniels, a ship steward's widow, who had been living with him as his wife.  One of the men sentenced at the Manchester Assizes, on Monday, to seven years' police supervision, for burglary at Stretford, committed suicide on Wednesday in one of the cells of the prison by hanging himself with a bed strap. His name was Thomas Daniels, and hehad already served seven years for a previous offence. At the Manchester Assizes on Wednesday, before Sir John Mellor, John Cuorlton, a painter, was indicted for the wilful murder of his wife. Early on the morning of the 28th September a police-officer was called to the house of the prisoner, where he found the woman dead. Her head had been battered in, her jaw fractured, and she bore many bruises. The prisoner and his wife had been quarrelling during the night, and between eleven and twain, after prisoner had gone home from a beer-house, screams were heard coming from the house. He was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to penal servitude for life. At the Bristol Assizes, on Tuesday, a young man named Ames was indicted for the murder of a boy named Miles. Deceased, while fishing in a lock on the Kennett Canal, near Bath, fell in. Two boys named Vowles and Hiliiar jumped in and held him above water, and cried to prisoner, a bargeman, for help. Instead of rendering help, prisoner closed the lock gates, and lifted the hatchway, causing a rush of water, which carried deceased to the bottom, his rescuers barely saving themselves. Prisoner was found guilty of manslaughter, and sentence was deferred. Justice Denman started a subscription in court for Vowles and Hilliar. At Manchester Assizee, on Tuesday, Samuel Old. man (33), was indicted for having attempted, at Rochdale, to drown his son, ten years of age, by thro ging him into the river. Prisoner had been married three times, and the boy was a child of one of the deceased wives. The presence of the child caused some disagreement between him and his present wife, who had left him in consequence and gone to Liverrol. The boy himself afterwards saw his father write a letter to his wife, stating that Willie (the boy) was missing, and asking her to come bank to help him out of his trouble. Subsequently the father took the lad to the river bank, and pushed him into the water at a spot where there were high walls on both sides. The lad managed however, to scramble out, and lay in an adjoining field the whole night.—The prisoner was sentenced to twenty-five years' penal servitude. At Leicester Assizes, on Wednesday, before Mr. Justice Baggallay, a boy, named Thomas William Smith, age 16 years, and described as a groom, and imperfectly educated, was charged with telonicusly breaking and entering the dwelling honse of Francis Albert Webb, and stealing a cash-box, containing a odd, one spade ace guinea, a lady's gold pin, and ether atticles, on the 22nd February last. The prisocer had led an extraordinary career, and in this case had eluded the vigilance of the police for eight months, and was not apprehended till the 12th October. It was stated at the trial that the prisoner had been detained for five years in a reformatory, and while there he broke out and committed three burglaries in one night. He had also been convicted of various offences, and had actually served six months' imprisonment with hard labour. The learned judge, in passing sentence, said although the prisoner was very young in years he was old in crime, and as the various punishments already inflicted had had no effect upon him he must pass the severe sentence of five years' penal servitude. The prisoner was then removed.