The Pontypridd District Herald and Rhondda Valley, Llantrisant, Caerphilly, and Mountain Ash News. — 1891-11-21 (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

MOTHER. A crime of a peculiarly sad character was corer/Amid on Monday at Titebtield, a village in Hants, the victims lmiug three children, aged eight, geese, and nine, whose throats were cut in a • shocking manner by their mother, a woman about forty years old. Mrs. Hinton is the wife of John Hinton, a harness maker, and she has for sown woo past been guilty of serious neglect of her family, so much so that a few mouths ago she was &aged before the magistrates at Farehain with ' amelty to the two boys, when she received a sentence of three months hard labour. Mrs. Hinton kas been twice married, and her second husband had a family when she was wedded to hini. Another wimmons had been taken out against her, and the bowing VMS fixed for Monday. Over and again she had been heard to declare since receiving the summons that she would " do for the lads," and that they would never see her at the Sessions He. .No notice was taken of these threats, but oriMonday about ten o'clock two little ones belong-, leg to a neighbour ran screaming across the street and said Mrs. Hinton was murdering her children. This statement proved to be only too well founded, as the youngest boy (William) left the house almost immediately with blood flowing from a terrible gash in the throat. He tell down in the street, but was picked up and taken to the house of a neighbour, where lie died shortly afterwards. Police Constable Hatfield hurried to the house, and on efleethig an entrance found the lifeless body of the girl (Mrs. Hinton's child by a former husband) lying in a pool of blood in front of the fireplace in the downstairs room. The girl's -head I was almost. severed from the body. This child . .  was probably the first victim, as the carving knife with which the terrible butchery was caused was found in a room upstairs by the side of the boy, Frederick, whose throat had been gashed from ear to ear. He was quite dead when found. As the police-officer ascended the staircase he met the marderesa coming down. She, too had wounds in the neck and throat, from which blood was impiously flowing, and she presented a sickening spectacle. In answer to the constable's inquiry, Who did this she replied, "I did." Both rooms had the appearance of shambles. The terrible swiftness of the mother's work is appalling, as the three murders and the attempt at self' destruction must have occurred within the space of five minutes. It is assumed that the woman first murdered the child and then made an attempt apon the boy William. He escaped from her grasp, however, and it appears she then went upstairs cut the throat of the other boy, and afterwards failed in her endeavour to eommit suicide. At the time of the tragedy the husband was, it is stated, absent from the house, although the police incline to another theory. The attendance of Dr. Hoare was at once secured, and be bound up the wounds in the woman's neck and those in the case of the child William. The latter, however, expired about noon. The woman was placed in a cab for conveyance to the police-station at Fareham. Owing to her violence, and her determined attempts to tear the bandages from her throat, she had to be guarded by two police officers. The violent behaviour of the prisoner caused the police to hasten matters as much as possible, and as the magistrates were still sitting when the prisoner was brought to the police-Station, Superintendent Brewer thought it prudent to have her before them on the capital charge. When brought into the court blood was still flowing from a wound on the left side of the neck, and she gazed vacantly around the room. The proceedings were very brief. Dr. Hoare said he had no hesitation in certifying the prisoner as insane, and the justices at once ordered her removal to- the county lunatic asylum at Knowle, where she was conducted by the police. At the inquest on Tuesday, John Hinton, the husband of the murderess, stated that he had been out of work for six or seven months. The two boys were his children by a former wife, and the girl Augusta was the illegitimate child of his wife. Witness had not of late lived happily with her. She was a most difficult woman to manage, and he ' had had to knock her down himself, or his life would have been sacrificed. She suspected him of  giving information to the inspector of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who had  summoned her to appear before the Fareham magistrates on Monday to answer a charge of neglect. On returning home on Monday morning from making some purchases, he found everything in a most orderly condition. He went out again, and on again getting home he was informed of the murder. Three weeks ago she , threatened to stab him. She Naa addicted to drink. In further evidence it was stated that when the policeman arrived lie found the mother raving mad, and it took three men to restrain her while she was conveyed to the police station. She said to the police superintendent, "I hope Jack will be happy now, as he has told me that the sooner I and the children are out of the way the better he will be pleased." She added, "I have done it, and my dear little children will be better off. God told me to do this, and I could not keep from doing it, as God told me it was right, and I did it." She alleged that her husband had driven her to suicide by his cruelty, and said the children should die with her.—A verdict of wilful murder was returned against the mother, who is still in the county lunatic asylum. She was, however, corn. mitted for trial on the coroner's warrant.