THE ROAD-HILL MURDER.

Evening Post, Issue 203, 2 October 1865, Page 2

THE ROAD-HILL MURDER.

Constance Erailie Kent was indicted at Salisbury assizep, on June 21, for the wilful murder of Francis Saville Kent. Mr. Justice Willes took his seat on the bench, and the prisoner was placed at the bar. bhe appeared dressed in black, with a thick lace veil which was lifted when placed in front of the dock. ; She stood firmly, but meekly, with her hands clasped. Silence having been proclaimed, the Lieputy-Cierk of Arraigns said :—Constance Emilie Kent, you are charged with the wilful murder of Francis Saville Kent, on the 29th June, 1860. Are you guilty or not guilty ? Prisoner (in a low tone) : Guilty. The Judge: Are you aware' that you are charged with having wilfully, intentionally, and with malice killed and murdered your brother ? Are you guilty or not guilty ? The prisoner made some answer, but in so low a tone thut it could not be heard. The Judge : I must repeat the question. You are charged with having wilfully, intentionally, and with malice killed and murdered your brother— are you guilty or not guilty ? The prisoner (in a low tone) : Guilty. The Judgw — The plea must be recorded. Mr. Coleridge said—Before your lordship passes sentence I desire to suy two things : First, solemnly, in the presence of Alriiighty God, the prisoner, as & person who values her own soul, wishes me to say that the guilt is hers alone, and that her father and others, who have so long suffered most unjust and cruel suspicion, are wholly and absolutely innocent ; and, secondly, that she was not driven to this act by unkind treatment at home, as she met with nothing there but tender and forbearing love ; and I hope, that I may add, that it gives me a melancholy pleasure to be the organ of these statements for her, because, on my honor, I believe them to be true. Mr. Justice Willes then assumed the black cap and said : Constance Erailie Kent, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with the wilful unurder of your brother, Francis Saville Kent; on the 29th of June, 1860. It is my duty to receive that plea which you have deliberately put forward, and it is a satisfaction to know that it was not pleaded until after having had the advice of counsel, who would have freed you from this dreadful charge if you could have been freed thereof. I can entertain no doubt, after having read the depositions, together with the confession of your crime, that your plea is the plea of a really guilty person. The murder was one committed under circumstances of great deliberation and cruelty. You appear to have allowed your feelings of jealousy and anger to have wotked in your breast until at last they assumed over you the influence and the power of the Evil One. Whether Her Majesty, with whom alone the prerogative of mercy rests, may be advised to exercise it by the fact of your youth at the time the murder was committed, and the fact that you were convicted upon your own cunfeßsion, which removes suspicion from others, is a question which it would be presumptive for me to answer here. It well behoves you to live what is left of your life as one who is about to die, to seek a more enduring mercy, by sincere and deep eontrithn, and by a reliance upon the only redemption and satisfaction for all sins of the world. It remains for me to discharge the duty which the law imposes upon the Court without alternative, and that is to pass upon you the sentence which the law adjudges for wilful murder — that you be taken from the

plate where you now stand to the place whence you came, from thence to the place of execution, and that you be hanged by the neck until your body is dead, and that when your be dead it be buried within the precincts of the gaol in which you were confined, and may God have mercy upon your soul I While the Judge was addressing the prisoner he was deeply affected, and when he came to the part at which he alluded to the Evil One having moved her to the deed, he entirely broke down and shed tears. At this point Miss Kent also burst into a flood of tears, and sobbed audibly. During the delivery of the judgment there was a breathless silence in eoun, and after it was delivered there was no movement for a minute more. After a short time the governor of the gaol intimated to the prisoner that she might retire, and she was at once conveyed to the cells beneath the court. Within ten mintues afterwards Miss Kent was placed in the prison van, and conveyed to the Wiltshire County Gaul.